Thank you to Jack Black, a 12,000 mile journey

Whetstone39

Whetstone39

Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Messages
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Last year I hosted a GAW to celebrate 5 years and 3,000 posts. Jack Black Jack Black was one of the winners. Jack lives in Leeds, England and I live in St. Louis, Missouri, but I thought it shouldn’t be too difficult to ship a knife to him, people do this all the time.

To put it mildly, and entirely due to my own fault, I had a bugger of a time getting this package delivered :). So lessons learned by me, and the package finally arrived.

Now Jack, being the friend that he is, wanted to send me something in return, an A Wright & Sons fixed blade. My love of fixed blades runs deep, so I thanked him for his generousity and looked forward to receiving the knife.

After some time had passed, and without the knife being delivered, Jack received a returned package in the mail with this message written on it:

Y6Xkxlk.jpg


Now having been alive in 1979, and not feeling particularly dead at the time, Jack and I shared a laugh and some bewilderment at this situation. The distance between Leeds and St. Louis is about 4,000 miles, so this package had crossed an ocean twice and traveled 8,000 miles in total. I wanted to ask Jack to reimburse him for his troubles, but knew he would refuse. Checking the mail last night, this beautiful traditional fixed blade and thoughtful postcard were waiting for me:

S1iMQTe.jpg


It is about 8 inches in total length, a carbon steel blade with fantastic file work on the spine and a gorgeous bone handle with spacers. It is thin stock and should be a great slicer.

Jack I can’t thank you enough for your kindness, and the 12,000 miles and 3 ocean crossings this knife has traveled to find me. The fellowship of the porch is unbelievable, and a constant encouragement to me.

I have plans for this knife. It is going to be my weekend carry, I am putting a 20 degree edge on it, and am going to attempt to make my first leather sheath to house it. If I fail at that (although I am committed to getting this right), the sheath makers here will be able to create the sheath I am envisioning.

Thanks again my friend, you really made me smile.
 
A story to tell the children, I love it. A knife more well traveled than most people in the world. I have friend who even in this day and age hasn’t been more than 50 miles from home in their lifetime.

Jack is a generous man and I’m proud to consider him a friend. I’ve been on the receiving end of his random acts of generosity before and always appreciated his contributions to the community.

I have to laugh though, Jack is one of the few people who constantly gets almost eulogized every time he comes up.

I’m guilty of the same, I have nothin’ but great things to say about the man. :) His generosity is legendary. :)

Don’t you love the way we talk about you like you’re not even here. Lol :D
 
Congrats on that gift from the ever-generous Jack Black, Tom! :thumbsup::cool::thumbsup: (Even if IMHO it's a knife of the type that should not be named. :rolleyes:) Cool story. I'm glad you're finally feeling better after 40 years, although admittedly that's a pretty tough disease to recover from! :eek::D

- GT
 
- great story, Tom..! Thank you for sharing ........and well done that man, Jack :thumbsup::thumbsup:




I sent a folder to Ireland not so long ago - it ended up in Canada o_O Fortunately, and eventually, found its way to the correct place :rolleyes:
 
Whetstone39 said:
Last year I hosted a GAW to celebrate 5 years and 3,000 posts. Jack Black Jack Black was one of the winners. Jack lives in Leeds, England and I live in St. Louis, Missouri, but I thought it shouldn’t be too difficult to ship a knife to him, people do this all the time.

To put it mildly, and entirely due to my own fault, I had a bugger of a time getting this package delivered :). So lessons learned by me, and the package finally arrived.

Now Jack, being the friend that he is, wanted to send me something in return, an A Wright & Sons fixed blade. My love of fixed blades runs deep, so I thanked him for his generousity and looked forward to receiving the knife.

After some time had passed, and without the knife being delivered, Jack received a returned package in the mail with this message written on it:

Y6Xkxlk.jpg


Now having been alive in 1979, and not feeling particularly dead at the time, Jack and I shared a laugh and some bewilderment at this situation. The distance between Leeds and St. Louis is about 4,000 miles, so this package had crossed an ocean twice and traveled 8,000 miles in total. I wanted to ask Jack to reimburse him for his troubles, but knew he would refuse. Checking the mail last night, this beautiful traditional fixed blade and thoughtful postcard were waiting for me:

S1iMQTe.jpg


It is about 8 inches in total length, a carbon steel blade with fantastic file work on the spine and a gorgeous bone handle with spacers. It is thin stock and should be a great slicer.

Jack I can’t thank you enough for your kindness, and the 12,000 miles and 3 ocean crossings this knife has traveled to find me. The fellowship of the porch is unbelievable, and a constant encouragement to me.

I have plans for this knife. It is going to be my weekend carry, I am putting a 20 degree edge on it, and am going to attempt to make my first leather sheath to house it. If I fail at that (although I am committed to getting this right), the sheath makers here will be able to create the sheath I am envisioning.

Thanks again my friend, you really made me smile.
Click to expand...

You've been dead 40 years and didn't even know it!! :eek: That's a great story, the sort of thing you couldn't make up! :D

T. Erdelyi said:
Jack is a generous man and I’m proud to consider him a friend. I’ve been on the receiving end of his random acts of generosity before and always appreciated his contributions to the community.

I have to laugh though, Jack is one of the few people who constantly gets almost eulogized every time he comes up.

I’m guilty of the same, I have nothin’ but great things to say about the man. :) His generosity is legendary. :)

Don’t you love the way we talk about you like you’re not even here. Lol :D
Click to expand...

You know, you've got a good point there. Maybe we should designate one person to insult him occasionally, just to make sure all the kind words don't go to his head. ;) :D :D
 
Wait... What year did you get married?



Oooo, someone had to go there.. lol

Great story guys, but I wonder... Was Jack's package to you addressed in his onw handwriting or a printed label?
 
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