Why have a brass back on a bowie knife???

[Tradtical Commando]

I was looking at bowie knives and saw the musso bowie "perhaps the original jim bowie knife". It has a brass back and so do several other 1830s-40s bowie/fighting knives. WHy the brass backing? What purpose did it serve? Its driving me nuts not knowing...lol

[D.Ellis]

Was supposedly to catch another blades edge when fighting. the soft material lets the opponents blade bite in and stick, buying time to parry the blade and counterstrike. That's my understanding anyway, some of the bowie experts here may have a more in depth answer.
Darcy  

[Tradtical Commando]

Well that's pretty cool