- Joined
- Feb 3, 2011
- Messages
- 1,941
The rising moon takes over the night sky as the day has fallen into a slumber. Many miles have been traveled and there are a few left still to go before I can finally say I'm home. As we pull into my girlfriends house she calls me into the house for just a minute. She has something for me?
Her hands are tucked behind her body as if to protect a precious treasure, her face and eyes smiling. "I got you something" she says as she reveals a rather familiar looking object, a tube. The written words "Tidioute" stand out in green ink against the off white sticker adorned upon the cardboard tube. Now I'm the one smiling. I've opened hundreds of tubes just like this one and that "pop" of a Great Eastern tube still gets me, admittedly that anxious feeling has dulled after having handled so many beautiful knives, but now it's like my first time. I remembered back to my first GEC, I was about 13 when I got it. I had worked all summer as a farm hand and every cent was spent on hunting stuff, be it calls, camo, gun and of course knives. When I opened that tube way back when, my hands probably had a slight tremble and inside was a #23 dressed in smooth bone. It was love at first sight and my entire collecting interests changed.
Fast forward nearly 9 years and my hands have a slight tremble as I take the tube from her. The tremble isn't there because of what I was given, but because of who was giving it to me.
See, my girlfriend isn't a knife nut like me, she doesn't spend her free time thinking of new blade combinations and bone jigs that might make even the most veteran knife enthusiast drool. She does however, think of ways to make me smile and to let me know how much she cares. My girlfriend just graduated high school and is starting to find her way in life; applying to college, applying for work.... Busy life. Generally when people gift you a little monetary token to help you get your life started, you don't turn around and buy a knife for someone else, but that's exactly what she did.
As the oil soaked wax paper slid from the tube I felt a familiar weight, without even unwrapping the paper I knew instantly the pattern, a #23. Pulling the folded dark brown paper back I laid my eyes upon a beauty of a knife. A big #23 trapper in Frontier bone, one of my favorites from GEC! The depth and beauty in the scales are amazing, the natural texture reminds me a bit of some Primitive bone I had a while back. Without a doubt the best Frontier bone I've handled and had to date. She picked out a perfect one for me after putting lots of time into going over pattern after pattern and weighing pros and cons, she nailed it because she knows me well!
My goal for this knife is to take a picture everyday and post weekly updates for a month, or so. I can't wait to age it in my pocket and make it a familiar figure in my everyday life! Hopefully you guys have a bit of interest in watching as well!
Day 1.
Day 2.
Day 3.
This day I drive to Carlise, Pa to pick my girlfriend up from camp. In total a 7 1/2 hour drive, but it was beautiful to see that much of the state! I drove through 4 mountain tunnels including the Allegheny, Tuscarora, Kittatinny and Blue mountains. Lots of beautiful land and a great memory to have with this one in my pocket.
Day 4.
Day 5.
Day 6.
Day 7.
No real opportunity to get the patina started, but I'm sure some food prep will happen soon enough and that patina will get kicked into gear. I've been using this knife like crazy, breaking down boxes, cutting shrink wrap off of material at work... All kind of good stuff. I think I'll whittle with it a bit tomorrow.
Thanks for reading
Her hands are tucked behind her body as if to protect a precious treasure, her face and eyes smiling. "I got you something" she says as she reveals a rather familiar looking object, a tube. The written words "Tidioute" stand out in green ink against the off white sticker adorned upon the cardboard tube. Now I'm the one smiling. I've opened hundreds of tubes just like this one and that "pop" of a Great Eastern tube still gets me, admittedly that anxious feeling has dulled after having handled so many beautiful knives, but now it's like my first time. I remembered back to my first GEC, I was about 13 when I got it. I had worked all summer as a farm hand and every cent was spent on hunting stuff, be it calls, camo, gun and of course knives. When I opened that tube way back when, my hands probably had a slight tremble and inside was a #23 dressed in smooth bone. It was love at first sight and my entire collecting interests changed.
Fast forward nearly 9 years and my hands have a slight tremble as I take the tube from her. The tremble isn't there because of what I was given, but because of who was giving it to me.
See, my girlfriend isn't a knife nut like me, she doesn't spend her free time thinking of new blade combinations and bone jigs that might make even the most veteran knife enthusiast drool. She does however, think of ways to make me smile and to let me know how much she cares. My girlfriend just graduated high school and is starting to find her way in life; applying to college, applying for work.... Busy life. Generally when people gift you a little monetary token to help you get your life started, you don't turn around and buy a knife for someone else, but that's exactly what she did.
As the oil soaked wax paper slid from the tube I felt a familiar weight, without even unwrapping the paper I knew instantly the pattern, a #23. Pulling the folded dark brown paper back I laid my eyes upon a beauty of a knife. A big #23 trapper in Frontier bone, one of my favorites from GEC! The depth and beauty in the scales are amazing, the natural texture reminds me a bit of some Primitive bone I had a while back. Without a doubt the best Frontier bone I've handled and had to date. She picked out a perfect one for me after putting lots of time into going over pattern after pattern and weighing pros and cons, she nailed it because she knows me well!
My goal for this knife is to take a picture everyday and post weekly updates for a month, or so. I can't wait to age it in my pocket and make it a familiar figure in my everyday life! Hopefully you guys have a bit of interest in watching as well!
Day 1.
Day 2.
Day 3.
This day I drive to Carlise, Pa to pick my girlfriend up from camp. In total a 7 1/2 hour drive, but it was beautiful to see that much of the state! I drove through 4 mountain tunnels including the Allegheny, Tuscarora, Kittatinny and Blue mountains. Lots of beautiful land and a great memory to have with this one in my pocket.
Day 4.
Day 5.
Day 6.
Day 7.
No real opportunity to get the patina started, but I'm sure some food prep will happen soon enough and that patina will get kicked into gear. I've been using this knife like crazy, breaking down boxes, cutting shrink wrap off of material at work... All kind of good stuff. I think I'll whittle with it a bit tomorrow.
Thanks for reading
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