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Homemade Knife

4K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  xtimberman 
#1 ·
Several years ago, I found this knife in the drawer of a workbench at the old family place. It is not a high-quality knife, but someone knew what they were doing - the guard is silver-soldered to the tang and the scales are fashioned from reddish micarta. It's a heavy knife for its moderate size. The sheath is recent.


No one seems to remember where it came from - just that it's been around "forever". My dad, who is in his 90s says that it was around when he was a kid. I figured that the micarta dates it - but recently found out that electrical micarta has been used as knife handle material since the late 19th century. I'm guessing that it was intended as a skinning knife...?

xtm
 
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#2 ·
XTM,

Neat Blade.... there is a unique patina that comes to carbon steel knives that cannot be duplicated without decades of frequent, honest use. This patina is evident on your family knife.

I have a Green River Skinner that I bought out of the cut out bin at the Smokey Mountain Knife Works while passing through on one of my frequent wanderings in the the 1980s.... it has been used to skin, fillet, butcher and slice all manor of fish, game, poultry and other meat. It is a heavy and thick knife made of common, high carbon steel with a coarse handle and crude sheath. It will take and hold a keener edge than any jazzy, custom job worth 10 times my skinner. It's not the best tool for any of these tasks, but the one knife that will do a 'good enough' job of them all. it always ends up in my hunting gear when I'm packing up....

It has that same patina.

By the look of your blade it has a 'Bowie' influence so I wonder if it had another intended application of a fighting knife. It is possible that the scales were replaced with Micarta or a bonded phenolic of some sort in the late 30's or 40's. The familiar "Bakelite" of the period is just such an early polymer from that period..... so I wonder if the knife is older than you suspect....

Maybe it's obscure, Probably it's unmarked, but Certainly it's a Family Treasure that speaks to the history of it's long use....

Like I said.... Neat Blade....

Drew
 
#3 ·
Hey Drew,
I see what you mean by the "Bowie" influence. Nothing like adding the "fighting" adjective to an old knife to boost its gravitas - or the "kitchen" adjective to squash it. :lol:

I also have a well-used Russell Green River skinner. When I first got it, it would rust up quickly in high humidity, so I browned the blade - and smoothed up the scales at the same time. It stays in the hunting kit.


xtm
 
G
#4 ·
xtm,

Take a few more pics of it with a overhead and a profile, next to a ruler. Send them to my email. I have a friend that is a instituitional historian and very well versed in historically correct knifes. His specialty. Let me pass those pics along and see what he says...

giz
 
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