Comin' back from a dove hunt/bass trip I stumbled into a long yard sale in Packwood, WA, that was just winding up. A feller had a display case of cutlery and old doo-dads; he was sportin' a long face--hadn't made much money at the sale and needed gas money to get home. He had a handle-less Jukes Coulson trade dag blade that carried a $150 tag; when I offered him $40 (which was all I had on me) he sez "do you know what that is? Nobody else seems to!" I said I had a notion, but just didn't have any more cash on me--and he sold it to me! I've since parted with it--for $400 and several other 19th-century trade blades--but I'll never forget the history it told. It had been sharpened so many times the edges had taken on a concavity to 'em--used fer a double-edged dagger or a lancehead, for decades, probably, back in the buffalo days--but then one edge had been purposely dulled, to make a tamer, more civilized single-edged knife fer kitchen chores after the glory days were gone. Some brave's big medicine, gone sour. I've found good bamboo fly rods, a passel of old fly reels, a couple of wicker creels and fair few Collins machetes and axes, but that old Injun relic was the best, by far.
mind yer topknots!
windy
