Sharpening Old Bowie knife shaving sharp. Frendship Indeana

A video features Paul Block demonstrating the sharpening of an old Bowie knife using his newly patented Block knife sharpener at the Friendship, Indiana flea market. These sharpeners incorporate a patent-approved flexible handle design that allows the honing rods to adjust and securely grip the knife’s cutting edge. They do not tear off steel or leave lips or burrs. Designed to restore original edges to blades, these sharpeners can effectively sharpen convex edges, V-blades ranging from 17 to 28 degrees, and any style of serrated edge blades, as well as handle the toughest steels, including stainless and D-2 tool steels. The first knife that made Bowie famous was said to have been designed by his brother Rezin in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, and forged by blacksmith Jesse Clifft from an old file. Court records show that Rezin and Clifft knew each other well, and according to an 1885 letter from Rezin’s granddaughter to Louisiana State University, her mother had seen Clifft make the knife for her father. This knife gained fame after Bowie used it in the Sandbar Fight of 1827, a brawl on a Mississippi River sandbar near Natchez, Mississippi, against several men, including Major Norris Wright of Alexandria, Louisiana. It was the only confirmed fight where Bowie used his knife design, surviving gunshots, stabbings, and severe beatings to win. However, Bowie’s older brother John later claimed that the knife used in the Sandbar Fight wasn’t Clifft’s but one specially made for Bowie by a blacksmith named Snowden.