Hemingway's knife

[Alberta Ed]

I was given a great book for Christmas, Hemingway's Boat, by Paul Hendrickson. The cover photo (http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/tGHzWH9S1060lDavlmI-IQ.aspx) shows a bare-chested Hemingway fishing off a boat. On his belt is what looks to me like a (possibly) stag-handled fixed blade in a leather sheath (the photo isn't that clear). Does anyone have any idea what he would have carried?

 

[kreole]

Good question!

To fuel the fire until someone knowledgeable comes along, there's a passage in The Old Man and the Sea on making a knife from a truck spring:

"We must get a good killing lance and always have it on board. You can make the blade from a spring leaf from an old Ford. We can grind it in Guanabacoa. It should be sharp and not tempered so it will break. My knife broke."
"I'll get another knife and have the spring ground. How many days of heavy brisa have we?"

This is an old thread about a folder in stag he carried: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/447003-Hemingway-knife

So, perhaps it is a custom from a truck spring with a stag handle.