Dawkind
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2000
- Messages
- 13,037
As you all know, I'm a huge fan of Tom's work and have been since 1990 when I got my first piece from him....a 2" Scalpel that was featured in an article in Blade Magazine along with a couple of others Makers pieces.
Fast forward to the past few weeks....someone had 3 Maringer's for sale, two of which I already had but one I had seen a number of years ago but wasn't able to acquire it....didn't miss it this time!
These were initially developed for white water rafting, hiking, outdoors, etc., something that was instantly accessible when needed. The interesting thing that Tom told me that these were created from 'drops', or leftover pieces, after a Vorpal was cut out....waste not, want not.
The earliest one is on the left from 1987 (looking over the S/N list I found that the first was made in 1983, #206 and a 2" blade) and is a 2" version in a very early Kydex ambi-sheath. The next two are from the 90's and the sheath had developed into this, one is another 2" and the 3" was referred to as a 'Super Scalpel'.
The scaled version is called a 'PAL', an acronym that I do not know the meaning of. It's serial numbered 724 but is actually #724B on his extensive list, there is a #724 3" Super Scalpel, too. This one is listed as a 4" blade but is actually a 5" with what initially was white linen Micarta that has aged and mellowed extremely well....unlike myself.
Fast forward to the past few weeks....someone had 3 Maringer's for sale, two of which I already had but one I had seen a number of years ago but wasn't able to acquire it....didn't miss it this time!
These were initially developed for white water rafting, hiking, outdoors, etc., something that was instantly accessible when needed. The interesting thing that Tom told me that these were created from 'drops', or leftover pieces, after a Vorpal was cut out....waste not, want not.
The earliest one is on the left from 1987 (looking over the S/N list I found that the first was made in 1983, #206 and a 2" blade) and is a 2" version in a very early Kydex ambi-sheath. The next two are from the 90's and the sheath had developed into this, one is another 2" and the 3" was referred to as a 'Super Scalpel'.
The scaled version is called a 'PAL', an acronym that I do not know the meaning of. It's serial numbered 724 but is actually #724B on his extensive list, there is a #724 3" Super Scalpel, too. This one is listed as a 4" blade but is actually a 5" with what initially was white linen Micarta that has aged and mellowed extremely well....unlike myself.
