Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1889-02-21
Helena, Montana, Thursday, February Il, 1889.
COSTLY AND DEADLY KNIVES.
Blades Made for Business in the Early
Days of California.

Blades Made for Business in the Early
Days of California.
In 1858 NJ. Price, who then had small
cutlery shop, sat up nights and made a
fine bowie knife, which he exhibited in
the first Mechanics fair held in San
Francisco. After the fair Ward Eaton
took the knife to the Bank Exchange
and raffled it for $3.50. Price had taken
great care in tempering the blade, and
had offered to forfeit 500 if any better
steel could be found. At that time Billy
Allison, of Yolo, was making knives,
which were sought by all men who
wanted reliable weapons
Surveyor General Higley had an ALI
son knife, and he backed it against
Prices blade. The test was made in the
Bank Exchange, and aroused as much
interest as a national election. Gen.
Higley laid half dollar on the counter
and drove the Allison blade through it
without turning the point or edge.
Ward Eaton welded the Price blade
with a steady, strong arm, and achieved
two half dollars, and the point of his
knife turned. Eaton piled up three of
the coins, drove the Price knife through
them, and when he raised the weapon
the three half dollars were impaled on
the point, which was not turned
That made Prices bowie knives as
famous on this coast as Toledo blades
were in Spain, and every man who west
heeled had to have one. Marion Moore,
a noted mining and sporting man, whose
nitro-glycerine blew up Wells, Fargo q
Co.'S express Office on the corner of Cali
fornia and Montgomery streets, ordered
of Price the best knife he could make.
Moore gave Price gold brick and a
piece of gold quartz that he had taken
out of a mine with his own hands, and
told him to work the metal in. Price made
an eight inch bowie, having gold handle
inlaid with quarts. Moore paid S175 for
the weapon, and handed back to Price
the gold that was left over.
Moore's lawyer, McCabe, got a gold
mounted knife for 500, and these two
expensive weapons played a leading part
in a bloody tragedy in White Pine, New.
Moore had a mine there, and, as was
usual in those days, somebody tried to
Jump the claim. Moore and McCabe
were caught in the tunnel by band of
fighters hired by the other claimants,
and cut their way out with their bowie
knives. Several men were killed in the
fight, and as most of the dead had only
knife wounds, it is supposed that Moore
and his lawyer did some game and lively
work.
A little gambler named Barney Kenny
used a six and a half inch bowie Of
Prices make with deadly effect about
eighteen years ago. He was playing
poker with three other sports in a
saloon in Portland, Ore. Somebody was
caught cheating, and Barney grabbed
the pot. Instantly the three confeder-
ates pulled their pistols and blazed away
at Barney, who drew his knife and
waded in desperately. After brief but
furious combat, in which fifteen shots
were fired, Barney walked out of the
room, leaving the others on the floor.
One was dead, a second mortally
wounded and the third cut so badly
that he had to be in hospital for
months.
In 1861 Price made two knives for Col.
Jack Gamble, who supplied Mexican
gold onzas for the handle frames. The
handles were inlaid with alkaline shell
and gold quartz, and the colonel paid
S400 for the two weapons. Gamble gave
one to his friend Charles Norris, who
lost it some years later. 1t was a mere
fancy of Candles to have such a
weapon, as he was never known to use
it. Joe Winters, in 1864, walked into
Prices place with two friends, saw three
S75 knives in the case, bought them, and
turning around, presented one to each Of
his companions just as he would hand
about cigars.
One of the men who bought an extrav-
agantly expensive knit from Price came
into the shop some TIME after fight had
occurred in mine and several men had
been carved to death, and exchanged the
weapon for some other wares. AS he
put the gold mounted bowie down he
said with a shiver that he would never
use a knife again. When the weapon
was examined the blade was found rusted
with blood, and there was blood even in
the crevices between the slabs of the
handle and the frame. There were no
guards on the hilts of these knives, be-
cause the men who bought them carried
them for sudden use, and a guard is
likely to catch in the clothing and delay
the draw.
The first big knives made by Price
were for party of United States sur
veyors, who wanted them as substitutes
for axes in cutting trails through the
brush. The blades were twelve inches
long and very heavy, and in the hands
of a strong man would cut a PERSONS
head off at one blow.-San Francisco Ex-
aminer.