The Adventures of Jim Bowie (TV Series)

The Birth of the Blade (1956)

Walter Sande: Samuel Black

Quotes 

• [Anne Black has been questioning Jim at length about his family] 

  Samuel Black : Uh, Mrs. Black... Jim's thirsty.

  Anne Black : [chuckling]  I'm going, Mr. Black.

  Jim Bowie : Oh my. Women sure love to talk, don't they.

  Jim Bowie : Uh-huh. That's what my father used to say... that is when Mama would stop talkin' long enough to let him get a word in.

• Jim Bowie : That's why I come to see ya, Mr. Black. I want you to make me a knife.

  Samuel Black : A knife?

  Jim Bowie : [referring to the mauling he just received from a she-bear]  Next time I have an argument with a lady, I'd like to win it.

  Samuel Black : Well, but Mr. Yancey has a real good assortment of knives.

  Jim Bowie : Ah, no, Mr. Black. Those kind of knives are too short to get through the fat of a bear and they're too brittle when they hit bone. Kind of knife I have in mind is a special kind of knife.

  [using his hands, indicates a blade over a foot long] 

  Jim Bowie : Knife I have in mind would have a blade about this long. It would be twice, maybe three times as thick as an ordinary knife and be curved towards the tip and be double-edged so it would cut two ways... and it would be balanced for throwin', so it would have to be made of the very finest steel so the tip wouldn't break off when it something solid. I don't know - maybe I'm askin' the impossible, but I do know this, Mr. Black, if anyone could make me this knife it's you.

  Samuel Black : A double-edged tip - that's a most unusual knife. It would have to be tempered six, maybe seven times very carefully. But Jim, that's not just a knife - that's a weapon!

  Jim Bowie : That's right, Mr. Black. A knife doesn't misfire - and it's always loaded.

• Samuel Black : Here you are, Jim.

  Jim Bowie : Hey, you put a strip of brass along the back.

  Samuel Black : Yes. Brass is softer than steel. You'll catch your opponent's knife, it won't slip off so easily.

  Jim Bowie : My opponent's? Mr. Black, I didn't want this knife for fightin' men.

  Samuel Black : Jim, there are men in this world who are more savage than beasts. Use this knife wisely and may it always protect you.