[marktwain]

We find the Bowie knives (the term is vague enough to encompass most knives) were not entirely "banned" but there were a few special taxes, and bans on concealed carry, mostly.

Almost never a ban on possession.

[ansel12]

I used to collect fighting knives and had a knife library and while it has been a lot of years I thought there were bans and in fact there were, bans on concealment, bans on using in a fight, and even bans to carry one at all or to sell one.

As you know there was a time when a gun needed a backup weapon, and the Bowie was seen as particularly brutal, and of course, the kind of men who carry a Bowie tend to be brutal men.

https://reason.com/volokh/2022/11/20/the-legal-history-of-bans-on-firearms-and-bowie-knives-before-1900/
“The only firearms ban statute before the Civil War was enacted by Georgia. It outlawed possession, sale, open carry, and concealed carry of the vast majority of handguns. The statute also banned Bowie knives and certain other arms. In Nunn v. State, the Georgia Supreme Court held the statute entirely unconstitutional because of the Second Amendment, except as to concealed carry.”

“Arkansas followed suit with a similar law in 1881. That law also forbade the sale of Bowie knives, dirks (another type of knife), sword-canes (a sword concealed in a walking stick), or metal knuckles.”