the facón, the large fighting-utility knife of the gaucho. The facón is widely used in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay in an indigenous style of knife fighting inspired by Andalusian knife fighting techniques known as esgrima criolla ("Creole fencing"). Late modern 19th century In North America, the advantages of a large fighting knife were seized upon by American frontiersmen, who faced both animal and human opponents of considerable ferocity. This popularity spiked in 1827 with the introduction of Bowie Knife, a pattern inspired by the knives commissioned by Rezin Bowie, brother of the better known James "Jim" Bowie. James became famous after killing one Norris Wright in a bloody melee at the Vidalia Sandbar Fight, but brother Rezin was the knife lover in the family. After the Bowie knife pattern was standardized during the 1830s and 1840s, it proved to be an enormously popular design, so much so that during the mid-19th century it became synonymous with the term "fighting knife". The fighting Bowies of 1830–1860 usually had 10 to 12 inch blades; some were even larger. The Bowie knife largely replaced earlier Native American tools and weapons such as the tomahawk. Before the introduction of reliable and powerful cap-and-ball revolvers on the American frontier, the Bowie knife was often preferred to a single-shot handgun or "horse pistol". During the later years of the 19th century, the classic Bowie knife pattern would be gradually reduced in size and length as its role changed from that of a dedicated fighting knife and weapon to a general-purpose knife and tool that could be used as a fighting knife in an emergency. 20th century By 1900, civilian fighting knives were being mass-produced in a countless variety of shapes and sizes, though they all shared the common characteristic of being primarily designed for use in physical combat. However, in military service, the traditional fighting knife began a gradual transition from a "pure" design intended solely for fighting to a knife that could fulfill other roles as well. This trend was not unprecedented, as many nations and cultures had already adopted various multi-purpose fighting knife patterns derived from popular general-purpose knives with cultural and historic roots, beginning with the Anglo Saxon seax of medieval times. Thus Chilean soldiers, for instance, were trained in the use of the Corvo, a traditional Chilean military weapon, while Gurkha regiments of the Indian Army serving the British Empire favored the