Bowie knife, original pattern derived from Spanish hunting/fighting knives, clip-edge blade usu. but not necessarily sharpened on both edges (thinned in any case to reduce mass near the point and facilitate stabbing). When sharpened on the clip edge, the latter was used for backslashing as in sabre fighting. Equally useful for stabbing and slashing, and powerful on the downswing because of the mass of the 1/4"-thick blade. Absolutely deadly in blade lengths >6" up to 13".
"Now, THAT's a knoife!!" </Paul Hogan>
To each their own. I prefer a karambit because it is discreet, unobtrusive, and has a secure grip. I would prefer a Bowie for field use. Less so in an urban situation.
BTW, the Spanish also invented, 25 centuries ago when they were still "Celtiberians", the
gladius hispanus as the Romans called it, adapting the Greek
machaera ("butcher") bladeform (weighted slightly in the middle for slashing attacks) and improving the steel by burying the bulk steel in the ground for several years in order to allow moisture and rust to attack the weaker steel, leaving the tougher, better material to be dug up, remelted, and smithed into fighting blades.
As the gladius, that weapon became in legionaries' hands the queen of the battlefield for five hundred years. From the time of Augustus, the gladius had a straight-sided blade which had a slender lozenge shape in cross-section, and was used mainly as a thrusting-weapon.
The gladius declined in workmanship after Trajan and morphed into a longer bladeform (for slashing) similar to a cavalry spatha under the Severan emperors and later. They were still carried under the Valentinian emperors by their increasingly sparsely-equipped infantry, as dwindling resources were diverted to the heavy "cataphractary" and medium cavalry that became the familiar chivalry of the Dark Ages.