That is a gift from a friend who lives in N. Georgia, near Helen. He has made damascus knives for many years, and used to sell them at the rendezvous he would attend with the muzzleloading community. It is called a Rifleman's Knife, or Longhunter's Knife. It is patterned after the knives carried by frontiersmen in the early 1800s on their long (sometimes several months) hunts for meat and skins. The maker's name is Ivan Boggs, and his trade name is Habersham Forge. I have watched him make a blade from 5 layers of carbon and nickel steel. He usually ends with 320 layers in the finished billet, welding and folding it 6 times. Watching a knife maker forge a billet of damascus steel is quite a memorable event, for me anyway. He once told me that it took him the better part of a day to forge one blade.
Ivan, and his lovely wife Blanche, used to come down from the mountains and hunt deer on my place. He was always trying to do something for me to repay me for letting him hunt. He had given me a couple damascus knives, but one trip down he told me, "I want to make you a special knife. One that is exactly like you want. What would that be?". I replied that I had always wanted a big coffin handled Bowie. He said for me to draw the knife I wanted and he would make it. I did ....... and he did. He made me an ivory scaled, coffin handled Bowie fighting knife that I treasure. Every steel part of the knife is damascus, even the guard. It has elephant ivory scales, and is really a handful. It is basically useless to me right now, except to admire and remember his friendship, but if we ever lose our right to bear guns (God forbid), I may need to carry it. If you'd like to see a pic I can take some and post them.
I miss seeing Ivan. He doesn't drive down anymore, says his daughters won't let him, since Blanche passed away. Friends like him are few and far between.
SRH
