Woooeeee, that little rascal showed up in the mail yesterday just as I was headed out the door going to an archeology expo, but I was so tickled with it I had to delay at least long enough to sharpen it up and polish the blade before I slipped it into my hip pocket. Archeology expo? Yup, they had a fellow there going to talk about Paleolithic tools/weapons and do a flintknapping demonstration. I'm a pretty quick study, turned out a fairly passable arrowhead/spearpoint right there on the spot.
Ah, but I digress, back to the Bilton. Looks like one of the early batches that wasn't made at Bir Ghorka. Tang runs all the way through the handle, where it's peened down on a diamond shaped brass end plate. Russ (CAVEDWELLER) was spot on about the handle being rosewood, it's a perfect match to some rosewood I have from Burma. It's now convex edged hair poppin' sharp and polished to where it'll hurt your eyes to look at it in bright sunlight. I snugged up the scabbard a bit with a glued in leather shim, and recovered the scabbard in chocolate brown garment leather. The "Super Frog" is done in 8 oz. vegetable tanned cowhide, dyed black for a nice contrast. Sweet little rig, rides nice on my belt, which is good 'cause it's going to be spending a lot of time there. Thanks to my forum mate and neighbor up there in Oklahoma, old Sarge has a new "off duty" khuk for casual wear. If these things are popular for cutting dried meat in South Africa, all I can say is they must have some serious beef jerky down yonder.
Sarge