In about 1820, Black spent some time at Bayou Sara in Louisiana working as a ferryman and as a steamboat deckhand on the Red River which took him upstream to Fulton, Arkansas.
Black, due to his previous training, worked on firearms and knives while Shaw concentrated on horse shoes, wagon wheels, and the like.
Backed by the note he had received from the dissolved partnership Black purchased some land along the Cossatot River and established a blacksmith's shop, dam, and mill.
Black and his wife had four sons and a daughter during this period: William Jefferson in 1829, Grandison Deroyston in 1830, Sarah Jane in 1832, John Colbert in 1834, and Sydinham James in 1835.
[1] Bowie's killing of three assassins in Texas and his death at the Battle of the Alamo made him, and Black's knife, legends.
He went north to seek medical advice, where his eyes were further damaged by the inept ministrations of a Cincinnati, Ohio, physician.
The story rests solely on Black's claims made well after he had been adjudged mentally incompetent..."[2] "...[T]he only time that [James Bowie] verifiably used a knife in a personal encounter was on the Sandbar in 1827..."[2] “...[T]o this day there is no known knife bearing his name that is proven authentic, nor positively identified as the work of James Black.
Neither is it proven beyond doubt that he even made a knife of any type!”[3] Shifting the question (and the burden of proof) from people to knives, "...[T]he Black explanation remains the most logical way to understand this part of the Bowies' history.
Several examples of early Bowie knives are on display at the Historic Arkansas Museum as part of the American Bladesmith Society collection.