I've posted this story here before, but will try to elaborate more now. In the mid 80's I became the somewhat young CO of a security team at a explosives production plant here in NJ. The plant, being the nature of such, was spread out over hundreds of acres, some of which were very remote and undeveloped. Also, as such, no firearms could be brought into the facility, period. Even LEO's had to surrender their firearms to us when responding, which meant, of course, that they hardly ever did, unless we brought the problem to them outside our perimeter. We had our share of problems too. Intoxicated bowhunting poachers would often penetrate our fenceline along the really remote stretches. There was the occasional attempt at breaking into storage magazines by local teens, and we even had a 'wanna be' satanic cult making animal sacrifices. This meant one of my most important pieces of field gear was my knife. In the beginning, I carried a cheap, but serviceable, HH survival knife that I had bought years before, for camping. Since I didn't have to spend money on a sidearm, I decided that it would be a good time to get a custom knife of my own design. I looked at a few makers, and settled on Gil's HH Survival Knife. I did however, want it with a tanto blade. At this time, I also became engaged, and as an engagement present, my fiancee asked if she could get me the knife. She contacted Gil with my particulars, and to both our surprise, he said that he already had made two examples of a variation with a tanto blade. She bought one, and the other, it turns out, was sold to Sylvester Stallone by Gil, at a CA knife show. I carried this knife in the field for about a year, and luckily, was able to keep it in mint condition. After a while, it dawned on me that Gil had moved on towards other styles, and my knife would probably be only one of two to ever exist, so into semi-retirement it went. Sure enough, when meeting him in person some twenty years later, both he, and his wife Linda's, eye's widened when they saw it. He confirmed that there had been only two made, and that Stallone owned the other. I lost the girl over the years, for good reason. But kept the knife, also for good reason, and will do so, I suspect, until my last days. After which, it will probably end up holding my ashes (after suitable engraving of course
).
