Patriot's Day & Found Patch Knife

[tippit]

April 19th is Patriot's Day...now celebrated on Monday instead of the exact day.  This isn't a big national holiday but it is Huge here in New England especially around me.  Over 200 years ago, the local farmers turned back the British as they were marching onto Concord to destroy the Colonial Militia's arms store.

My town of Carlisle is the adjacent town to Concord.  Carlisle was a farming community back then but it must have been a hard life for the local farmers as it is mostly granite and wet lands.  Because of the land and the proximity to the Battle  of Lexington & Concord, Carlisle was never really developed compared to other towns just west of Boston.  

I live next to thousand acres of conservation that communicates with conservation land set aside by the federal government in the battle route from Lexington to Concord.  The area is crisscrossed with woods, swamp, and stonewalls making for some very enjoyable outdoor activities if one has to live close to Boston.  As a side note, these conservation corridors hold quite a few deer that can NOT be hunted except on ajacent private property    

Back to found patch knife, I was walking my dogs through the woods and as I crossed a stonewall down in the swamp, I noticed something under one of the rocks.  Could it really be an old patch knife from the Battle of Old North Bridge where the Minutemen turned back the British Red Coats?

   

     


Naw, Just another one I made to look old       Enjoy Patriot's Day...Doc

   

[DANA HOLMAN]

Well Doc, you had me going for a min. nice job
dana

[swp]

Nice!

[GWV]

Good story.  Nice knife!

[4runr]

Very cool Doc!

[kbaknife]

That is so cool.

[razorback]

Nice knife and story. I have heard the phrase "patch knife" many times but never a good explanaition of what one was and how it was used. Anyone want to enlighten me.

[tippit]

Razorback,
To load a flintlock or percussion rifle, you add your powder then push a round ball with fabric around it into the barrel end.  Once it is seated in about an inch, you cut off the extra fabric and push to ball all the way on top on the powder charge.  The knife to cut the fabric is referred to as a patch knife.  It is usually attached to your possible bag that contains all the necessary accoutrements to load & fire your rifle.  The reason for the fabric patch is to have a leak proof seal around the ball as it is expelled out the barrel on ignition...Doc

[razorback]

Tippit,
Thanks for the answer. I've seen that done and never put the two together.

[Jack Guard]

Enjoyed that story and love the knife.  Really like seeing it in its parts.  

Doc, what kinda bone is that?   Looks like a metatarsal, but not sure what animal.

[Toecutter]

Very cool Jeff!!  Havent been on here in a while and I see that things have only changed for the better...Top quality knifework and now history lessons!!  This place is GREAT!!

Heading over to the Hammer-In at Georges now, gotta put my beer drinking and thinking caps on.  Not sure If they both fit on my head at the same time?

Again, Nice work!

Nathan

[OconeeDan]

Super nice Jeff.

[amar911]

You fooled me, Jeff. But that isn't very difficult! Love the knife; however, I say that about all your knives. Thanks for showing it and giving us some interesting history along the way.

Allan

[JohnHV]

Nice one Jeff!

I love that attachment system.

How did you finish the bone? It almost looks like you didn't use any sealer on the handle.

I'm about to finish up an antler handled "period" knife and I am hoping to achieve a similar unfinished look.

[tippit]

JohnHV,  
The bone was sitting in the sun on the desert floor for some time when I picked it up.  It was very chalky but I really like that as it will have some cool mineral stains and cracks.  I just partially buffed it out.  I try to keep some of the chalky spots for old looking texture.  I seem to spend half my time hunting looking at the ground in front of me.  Maybe I'd put more meat on the table if I'd change my ways  

[JohnHV]

Thanks for the reply Jeff.

Sometimes less is more when it comes to finishing natural materials.  I really like the look you achieved with this one!

I hunt an old Georgia farm a couple times a year and usually find a few piles of old cow bones in the woods.  If I come across some pieces that you might be interested in, I will let you know.

[tippit]

John,  
I think I already have 1/2 a cow & 1/2 a bison so I'm probably all set with those bones.  What I really look for are unusual bones...like one where an animal broke a leg and then healed up only to die of some other means.  I prefer to think it was old age as they already went though enough misery.  But some of those bulbous callused over fractures make interesting handles...Doc

The distal end of a bear's ulna callused over after he had lost his paw to a snare.  He did OK as he was the Largest Bear taken a few years ago from bear camp.  
 
 

Here a healed fracture waiting to become a knife    

 

[JohnHV]

That is a great idea.  Never thought to look for bones with that kind of character.  Now I really need to keep my eyes open while I'm in the woods this fall.