The Knife that Horace Kephart created......

Ethan Becker

Ethan Becker

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Some months ago my friend Mark Zalesky of KNIFE Magazine was kind enough to show me a rare(one of two known) Kephart Sheath Knife made by th Colclesser Brothers in El Dorado Pennsylvania ..... It is complete with a factory sheath in damn good condition....... Last week Mark brought down a couple of 19th century trade knives, a Shively Bowie and the Kephart...... we took them out to my forested ridge side and did a wee bit of Tulip Poplar deconstructing........ The trade knives were classic thin buffalo skinners and performed as the brand spanking new ones of 1095 do.....They and the Shively were a bit dull and sharpening these old guys is a no-no in the collecting world of antique blades..... I did murder a mosquito wth the Shively with the flat of the blade (I know I should have stabbed the wee critter but, it was perforating my arm) but it was too dull to cut well and hacking with a Shively just ain't happening at my place.......

The Kephart felt marvelous in the hand and is, I think, going to live up to it's hype...... it is a thin blade, light and balanced, convexed to past the mid point and and relieved at the top to facilitate an exit from flesh..... there are no nasty sharp edges in the handle area, the shaping of said handle are an excercise in crafty subtleties....The edge was what, mabe sixty, seventy years old?.... It WANTED to cut.........I will learn much from this blade.....Mister Kephart knew what he was about when he designed this one....

I will have this historic blade with me at Blade and if you speak kindly and reverently to me and you have fresh, unsullied, dry surgical gloves with you well, we can talk....

Ethan

P.s. I got a kick out of using this blade within sight of where the bear hunt took place....

Bladite will be posting the first of many pix shortly.....
 
pix!

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That's all for now folks...

and now more

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Thank you Mr E for sharing your experience. I cannot wait to see pictures of the fine blades that you described.
 
This is immeasurably cool. What an awesome experience. Yet another reason that I am bummed that Blade is so far away, not in the cards at this time to make the travel...

Perhaps next time....
 
Wow!!! It is just wonderfully simple in design. I like it alot. Thanks Bladite for sharing.
 
surgical gloves are not very expensive by the box ;)
 
That is so cool. Thanks for sharing this with us Ethan. Neat timing for me because I am currently reading Horace Kephart's book.
 
So I guess the real question is.... Might we ever see a tweener Kephart?

I know I wouldn't be able to resist.
 
Hey Mauser..... he is awesome in all respects.....I keep a copy of his work close at hand during daily meditation time....... His first camp was less than twenty miles from the house and the flora and fauna are very similar..... some of my neighbors had ancestors I am quite certain knew him..... Read OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS when you get a chance...... A great read about my neighborhood about a century ago...

E
 
Hey 3ben....

If you get a chance to compare the Sweet Sixteen to the Kephart you will find them quite similar in the hand....... it is so close that talking the powers that be into a Becker styled Kephart ain't bloody likely....... To do it justice would require a ton of hand work..... Maybe a very limited edition down the pike..... Very, super, very unlikely...... I repeat....UNLIKELY...... Fun to think about tho....

E
 
Ethan Becker said:
Hey 3ben....

If you get a chance to compare the Sweet Sixteen to the Kephart you will find them quite similar in the hand....... it is so close that talking the powers that be into a Becker styled Kephart ain't bloody likely....... To do it justice would require a ton of hand work..... Maybe a very limited edition down the pike..... Very, super, very unlikely...... I repeat....UNLIKELY...... Fun to think about tho....

E
Click to expand...

Fair enough. Thanks for getting back to me. I do love my BK16. It was my first Becker knife, and I was so impressed that it started this disease. It's now 3yrs later, and it's still the knife that sees the most use in the woods.
 
Awesome. Always admired that design.
 
there will be many attempts at copies...

but unless they were made with a real Kephart in hand, they aren't even copies...

late night thoughts :D
 
Having read his book, but only seen illustrations of his knife, it is very cool to see pictures of the actual blade itself. A very interesting piece of history you were able to handle. A big thanks to Ethan (and even Bladite for posting the pics) for sharing your thoughts on the design.

Now to lose myself in the interwebs searching info about a Shively Bowie…
 
a modern reprint of the book by University of TN Press (Jim Casada forward), ISBN 10: 0-87049-556-9 or ISBN: 978-0-87049-556-4 or amazing river code: 0870495569 ; be warned, modern paper, thick.

if you can score a 1916-1921 copy of 2 in 1, do it :D

i'll bring mine to Blade. Bible like paper. thin. amazing treasure at nearly 100 years old.
 
What an amazing experience. I can't decide if I'm jealous or if I'd he too intimidated to handle any of the blades in question with anything but the softest of kid gloves. Thank you very much for sharing it with us.
 
Thanks for sharing that Uncle E. My evening thoughts are: Isn't it funny how simple, functional, useful tools never go out of style, no matter how old & how many times they are copied or modified, the original still works fine & gets the job
done ?
 
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