The Sunday Picture Show (December 21st, 2025)

Old Hunter said:
Beautiful burl handles and love the blade shape, heck I love the entire knife!
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Thanks
pjsjr said:
Roger thanks for another Sunday Picture Show. Thanks also to those who post photos and comment.
I've visited Plymouth Rock a long time ago and didn't remember the details.. What a harrowing journey it must have been.
@howiema I like Buck knives and 1911s too. That 116 is really a fine example.
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Woulda, shoulda, coulda......
Sigh.
Very nice.
 
bertl said:
From only 100 to 35 million in only 400 years!
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I raised my eyebrow at that number but it is quoted in several places. I looked but could not find an explanation or source. I think it is a theoretical exponential calculation. But, it is worse than you state. Keep in mind that HALF the Pilgrims died that first winter sheltering on the ship. When Spring arrived there were only about 50 survivors. Only 5 of the survivors were adult women.
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About a year after the arrival of the Mayflower, the ship Fortune reached Plimoth bringing more settlers in November 1621. Amongst its passengers there were only two women, meaning this small contingent of adult women were often spread quite thin between the colony’s domestic duties. William Bradford recounts that Plimoth’s women did household work not just for their own families, but for others in the town as well. This was much to the dismay of some of their husbands, as Bradford writes that “for men’s wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc… neither could many husbands well brook it.” There was work to be done outside the home too, for Bradford continues to say that the women also went out to the colony’s fields, and “took their little ones with them to set corn.”
(stuff they don't teach you in HS, had me at the "etc.")
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DeSotoSky said:
C Chilebrown The image reminds me a lot of the Ghost-Rider /Easy-Rider 110 by David Mann. I can't quite make out the writing by the front wheel, is this also a David Mann work?
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I was looking at my notes and will have to get back to you. I have reached out to my historian contacts and memory fades them. It is listed on SPL but no info. I will dig up knife and magnifying glass to see what writing is.
 
Generally the native Wampanoag people were appalled at how filthy the Pilgrims were. Native Americans were not dirty savages. Wampanoag people found the Pilgrims unhygienic. Unlike the Wampanoag, who bathed regularly in rivers and streams, the 17th-century Europeans generally did not, viewing full-body bathing as potentially unhealthy or immodest. Natives also generally had better dental hygiene, using chew sticks and herbs to clean their mouths, while the Pilgrims did not.
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A nice brace of 120 Generals.
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DeSotoSky said:
I raised my eyebrow at that number but it is quoted in several places.
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“When Spring arrived, there were only about 50 survivors. Only 5 of the survivors were adult women. Given the numbers, I can't help thinking that some Wampanoag blood-line may need to be considered.”



Roger, when you posted the number of 35 million Mayflower descendants, I immediately thought of three things.

1. What data, assumptions and equations are the basis for the estimate of 35 million.

2. It’s a good thing that my great-grandfather Lindsay wasn’t part of the Mayflower contingent. He wouldn’t have contributed much to the exponential growth. He had eleven children and nine of them survived to adulthood. Of those nine, only two married and had children—my grandfather had three and one of his brothers had one. None of the others ever married, even though most lived into old age.

3. Years ago I did a study of inbreeding in Alaskan Malamutes. The breed was registered with the AKC in 1935, but by 1947 there were only about thirty registered dogs left. Many had been lost during the Byrd Antarctic expeditions and as sled dogs for the army during World War II. At the time I worked on this, my calculation was that more than 16,000 dogs would have been needed in the base population to ensure there was absolutely no inbreeding. Of course that wasn’t the case, and I found a lot of inbreeding occurred in the 1950s—mother-son; father-daughter; and sister-brother were the extreme cases.

For the Mayflower survivors, I doubt that inbreeding was an acceptable choice although it wouldn’t surprise me if cousin-cousin breeding occurred. Since the European population was pretty limited, some breeding with the native population is a distinct possibility, but that probably does not show up in the records.
 
bertl bertl Nice to know some of my weekly musings get read and even nicer to know someone thinks about it. Some weeks I come up dry and other weeks I get captivated. I had edited out my earlier comment about some mixing with the native population as there was not much evidence for it except that it was rare. I see that you had captured my comment before I did. I found this one source.
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...widespread intermarriage between Pilgrims and Wampanoag people did not happen; instead, their relationship was primarily diplomatic and trade-focused, marked by initial alliances but also deep cultural differences and eventual conflict, with instances of "unclean" behavior punished by colonists, though mixed-heritage individuals did emerge from broader colonization, not typically from Pilgrim-Wampanoag unions.

My favorite Buck 703 with Mallard shield.
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Chilebrown said:
I was looking at my notes and will have to get back to you. I have reached out to my historian contacts and memory fades them. It is listed on SPL but no info. I will dig up knife and magnifying glass to see what writing is.
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DeSotoSky DeSotoSky it is a little embarassing but after putting on stronger glasses the engaving says Buck Knives Inc. 1996 but I still do not know if this has anything to do with David Mann's drawings.
 
DeSotoSky said:
C Chilebrown The image reminds me a lot of the Ghost-Rider /Easy-Rider 110 by David Mann. I can't quite make out the writing by the front wheel, is this also a David Mann work?
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Chilebrown said:
DeSotoSky DeSotoSky it is a little embarassing but after putting on stronger glasses the engaving says Buck Knives Inc. 1996 but I still do not know if this has anything to do with David Mann's drawings.
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I immediately thought of David Mann also. I did a little interweb searching. I didn't learn anything about Mann's artwork on Buck knives, except for the Ghostrider, but I did learn some interesting things about him. He was from Kansas City and went to the KC Art Institute. He went out to California in the early '60's so the timing could work. I don't think he was very well known at the time, but then Buck was a lot smaller back then so who knows. Its certainly reminiscent of his work. Maybe its somebody who influenced him 🤷‍♂️
 
bertl said:
Don't forget Hester Prynne.
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Had to look it up. An 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthtorne. "The Scarlet Letter"
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Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter with a man to whom she is not married and then struggles to lead a new life of repentance and dignity. As punishment, she must wear a scarlet letter 'A' (for "adultery")
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277 Folding Alpha Hunter, Elk, 2002
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