Per The History of Bans on Types of Arms Before 1900 by KOPEL & GREENLEE there was no real distinction of a Bowie knife or Arkansas toothpick back in the early 19th century:
"The knife had been made by Rezin Bowie, Jim’s brother. According to Rezin,the knife was intended for bear hunting. He stated, “The length of the knifewas nine and a quarter inches, its width one and a half inches, single-edged,and blade not curved.”436 Nothing about the knife was novel.The initial and subsequent media coverage of the Sandbar Fight was oftenhighly inaccurate.437 As “Bowie knife” entered the American vocabulary,manufacturers began labeling all sorts of large knives as “Bowie knives.” Someof these were straight (like Rezin’s) and other had curved blades. Rezin’s knifewas single-edged, but some “Bowie knives” were double-edged. Rezin’s knifedid not have a clip point, but some so-called “Bowie knives” did. Likewise, somehad crossguards (to protect the user’s hand), and others did not. “Bowie knife”was more a sloppy marketing term than a description of a particular type ofknife—just as some people today say “Coke” to mean many kinds of carbonatedbeverages. (The difference is that true “Coke” products, manufactured by theCoca-Cola Company, do exist; there never was a true “Bowie knife,” other thanthe one used at the Sandbar Fight.) Manufacturers slapped the “Bowie knife” label on a wide variety of large knives that were well-suited for hunting andself-defense. In words of knife historian Norm Flayderman, “there is no onespecific knife that can be exactingly described as a Bowie knife."
