⭕ Very rare, large and desirable antique Sheffield Folding Bowie Knife. It is stamped on the tang S.C. WRAGG / 25 / FURNACE HILL / SHEFFIELD. It was made c. 1845 and is in very nice condition overall. The 5-1/4 blade is full and shows little use and very light sharpening, other than that the blade is 100%. It looks like the pommel on this knife got used more than the blade, it has dents and dings on one side from being used as a tapping device, probably used to loosen the barrel wedge on a Colts revolver for cleaning or reloading.

The knife is 6-1/4 inches closed and 11-1/2 inches open. Its a very solid knife, nice and tight in the open/locked position with no wiggle or looseness in the blade. The blade has excellent SNAP when opening and closing. Beefy, two-piece black & tan colored horn grips with large, 1862 crudely hand carved into the reverse side of grip which could be evidence of CIVIL WAR usage. Probably done by a soldier with not much else to do around the camp.

The COFFIN shaped pommel has a rare design referred to by knife collectors as the State Seal of Louisiana. Please see picture #5 for an article on this particular pommel design from a 1957 October issue of The American Arms Collector written by Ben Palmer.

This is a wonderful, early c. 1845 fighting knife that has seen much American frontier history having been around during the Mexican war, California Gold Rush, and the Civil War.

These big, early Sheffield folding Bowies are very difficult to find and much more difficult to find in this condition. In Bernard Levines article in the Sept. 1993 issue of Blade magazine he writes of these 19th - Century Classics as being the ultimate in antique folders.