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Sam no reason to re-invent the wheel. I've already covered the history and timeline of the "scallops," including flanged butt caps, "coolee" caps, and collars, in great detail including many pictorial histories.
You can find most of it on this site in the "Dating a Randall Bowie" line. The original line was on the other site, but I copy-pasted and posted most of the picture details in this line (fortunately) before being asked to leave, simply to ensure the historic details were maintained. The presentation is a little haphazard on this site compared to the original on the other site... but most of the pictorial pictures and historic Bowies are there.
Basically there were three, maybe four, distinct periods. The hilts, scallops, spacers, sheaths, and escutcheon plates are the clue to dating these knives and you cannot ignore any of these features. Anyway, it is all there, though I haven't posted some additional details I developed later.
The "escutcheon plate" line also posted on this site was an offshoot to the Bowie dating line.
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