Our friends at Rock Island have another auction coming up and Gray’s Sporting Journal highlights one particular entry in a feature by legendary gun writer Terry Wieland. When I hear “Jeffery Double Rifle” I think of the great Boer hunter and World War I operator PJ Pretorius. This is slightly later and lighter than his, but what a fine specimen of a working man’s double…
Lot #483 (www.rockislandauction.com) is by W.J. Jeffery, in .450/.400 (3”), that two experts of my acquaintance have dubbed “the finest” they have ever seen. It’s not one of the over-the-top, intended for display not for use, elaborately engraved creations of 20 years ago, but a rifle made for hunting in the late ‘20s or early ‘30s.
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John Bryan’s Scavengeology site has been a bit quiet lately, but a 2019 essay on scalping knives recently popped up in my feed. Fascinating stuff.
Native American “Scalping Knives” – the truth, the fiction, the business, the bloody history
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This collection of Texas Ranger images is worth perusing…
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Speaking of Rangers — Benjamin Church is stalking me still, even after the completion of the King Philip’s War podcast series he inspired. Hoffman Reproductions makes fantastic, authentic reproductions of Colonial American knives, swords and muskets. Here is a recent video describing an accurate reproduction of Church’s cutlass. Another piece whose beauty is in its utility — a straightforward slasher and chopper, all go and no show. Hell yes, I want one…
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While we’re on the subject of edged weaponry…
Zombie Tools of Montana has a new release that would make a fine companion on a quest into the Frontiers of Fennario. The Belmont:
Whether exorcising demon-possessed priests from the crypt of an ancient cathedral, in the hand of blood-thirsty mobsters at the pony track looking to “ensure a favorable outcome” of the race, or cleansing the fiendish undead from an abandoned countryside castle, The Belmont executes with dexterous precision.
Summoned from the ashes of the Parabellum, The Belmont retains the balance of its predecessor while setting itself apart with its clip point tip that adds thrusting to its considerable chopping capabilities.The Belmont is made from 5160 steel with T6 aluminum handle slabs and rides on the hip in a Kydex drop sheath that straps to the leg, ready to faithfully follow you into whatever shitshow you have the ticket for.
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New material from Turnpike Troubadours, by Crom!
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BREAKING NEWS:
My Cowboy Soap Opera will hang up its spurs this year. From Deadline:
Paramount has announced that the Kevin Costner-fronted Yellowstone will wrap its run with the upcoming second half of Season 5, which is set to premiere in November. It will be followed by an untitled sequel, from 101 Studios and MTV Entertainment Studios, which has received a straight-to-series order for a December debut.
This is NOT bad news. It’s always tempting to string out a juggernaut like what Yellowstone has become, but it’s never a good call. Sons of Anarchy comes to mind. It got diffuse and shambolic and lost its punch well before Jax made his suicide ride. Black Sails, on the other hand, turned in a tight, focused four-season run that told the story that needed to be told, then sailed off into the Caribbean sunset.
And it’s not like there will be a lack of Taylor Sheridan-created content….
Matthew says
Read the article on the scalping knives. It seems to confirm what I’ve read before about scalping: everyone did it. A commenter whose Native American (or claiming to be Native American) said it was European invention. It was responded that there’s proof that Native Americans did it before European contact. I think whoever did it first, EVERYONE practiced it. (The ancient Celts and the Medieval Samurai collected whole heads too.)
Listen to this podcast about our current political polarization and how it could lead to violence among other things. (It’s about 3 hours long, but it’s really good.)
https://wimsblog.com/2023/05/podcast-episode-120-marc-macyoung/
It’s mentioned that “enhanced interrogation” was around before the War on Terror, but it was kept behind closed doors. And EVERYONE did it. Like scalping.
JimC says
Thanks Matthew. I’ll check out the podcast this week. As for scalping, I always turn back to the epigraph for Blood Meridian:
lane batot says
I always laugh when I hear the argument that Native Americans are to be excused from scalping(REALLY?) because, well, the Europeans introduced the practice! BEFORE the Europeans, it was very common, when taking trophies of war, for the American Indians to hack off entire limbs or heads, and carry these around, or have victory dances with them! There are old, early, early illustrations of some of the first Europeans witnessing and documenting this. Scalping, at least, was a far easier form of trophy collecting–can you imagine lugging someone’s leg around? And of course the truth is, all frikkin’ human cultures have the tendency to be savages, at one time or another……
lane batot says
….And I really enjoyed the Scalping Knife article. It’s amazing how my Coleman Camping sheath knife that I got very cheaply at The Wal Mart many years ago, looks amazingly similar to the basic scalping knife model! That simple design has served me better, and longer, than any other sheath knife I’ve had–light weight but sturdy, and the DAMN-EASIEST-TO-SHARPEN knife I’ve ever had! I immediately chucked the store-bought sheath, and made my own decorative leather better-functioning sheath, so I had to laugh when I read that that’s what the traders often did–put a simple butcher-type knife in a fancy sheath and sell/trade it as a “scalping knife”! If you think about it, it’s kinda like “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. I mean The Wal Mart IS the modern day Hudson’s Bay Trading post now! But now, the “scalping knife” is called a Coleman “Camping Knife”!
JimC says
Durable, light and easy to sharpen are the key elements of a good woods knife —- Valerian steel quenched in the urine of wood elves notwithstanding…
lane batot says
HA! Well, urine IS a good basic disinfectant, in a pinch!
Joe says
The Benjamin Church reproduction sword looks like an interesting blend of designs that’s well-suited for the versatility of a frontier fighter. Brings to mind a few elements that some of the larger Bowies of the 1930s incorporated, or the giant Confederate Bowie “knives” of the Civil War period.