Nope I don’t get it… Hunters and outdoorsman always talk about being patriotic, protecting our constitutional rights – particularly the 2nd amendment, even supporting our historical legacy of hunting – yet they walk around with a Chinese knife ! How do we support our legacy, when most of our gear is made in a country that has nuclear missiles pointed towards our heartlands ? How crazy is that?
Second thought, even though the majority of our gear, binoculars, scopes, back packs, knives are made in China, how much do these Chinese companies donate to support our cherished rights? None – have you ever heard of a Chinese company donating to NRA or SCI for that matter. Let me tell you who does support our legacy. All the master artisans that generously donate to our clubs, both local and national. We are on the cusp of loosing many cherished arts in this push to always find the cheapest of everything. When did we lose sight of quality? Case in point, Central Texas Safari Club was fortunate to have one of Texas outstanding knife makers donate his art to our Wildlife Legacy Gala. Keith Richard, of Rocksprings Texas, master craftsman of Hill Country Texas Custom Knives created us a one of a kind masterpiece for our event. He supports our club, we need to support these artisans, I would rather an American have my money than some anonymous Chinese company. When I am buying a knife that I can hand down to my grandsons, what difference does a few hundred dollars make? It’s an investment, one that supports our hunting legacy, keeping these artisans in business – in short supporting America.
Keith’s blade art was truly amazing, beautiful Damascus blades. Striking works of art in their own right, the primary donation blade handle was lovingly crafted in mammoth tooth. This blade was made to order for our club, it has been a vision I’ve had for years, combining the intricate patterns of 20,000 year old petrified mammoth tooth with a damascene patterned blade. For those of you that don’t know damascene steel it’s a completely different type of metal, that combines a softer more flexible steel with a harder crisper edge holding steel. The two different pieces of metal are heated white hot, folded over on themselves, hammered melding the metals together, sometimes hundreds of times to create beautiful patterns in the steel as well as lighter and stronger blades. The famed samurai blades are one of the most famous of these incredible steel techniques. It has almost become a lost art.
This years limited edition Legacy knife was a spectacular combination of the striking Damascus worked steel, with the delicate pattern of mammoth tooth shaded in blues and grays. The sheath for the knife was an eye catching stingray hide. To say the least, I bid heavily on the knife, we auctioned it off as a card draw, unfortunately I didn’t win – a real disappointment. His primary donation raised over $1,500 for the club and we even had to open a second deck of cards for the exceptionally heavy bidding. Keith generously made a second knife for the club raffle table. In a special drawing, this knife sucked in raffle tickets like a vacuum cleaner. It was an amazing Damascus knife blade, handle in giraffe bone, accented by mammoth tooth insets. It was hard to tell which knife was the most stunning. The raffle knife had a beautiful, rugged, alligator hide sheath.
Hill Country Texas Custom Knives supported our club in a major way. All of us should honor Keith’s support to our hunting community and when we can, consider one of his beautiful knives as a wonderful Christmas or graduation. I’m working his knives into our gift giving and I hope you support our donors and try to do the same. Remember I want to leave you with a thought; quit carrying cheap Chinese knives, the blades will break and turn on you in more ways than one – buy American – buy proud – and don’t buy cheap.
Hill Country Texas Knives website is http://www.hctck.com/ , Keith Richard, owner and master craftsman, phone number is 830-683-3418. Column written by David Sefton.
