What "Traditional Knife" are ya totin' today?

5K Qs said:
Noble and notable Black Friday pair, Steve; maybe my two favorite GEC patterns! :thumbsup::cool::cool:
(And I'm amazed by your photograph that's taken from far enough back to include both knives and some background, and yet the tang stamps are more clear than I can produce with intense zooming! 😲)




- GT
Click to expand...

Thank you kindly Gary !
 
Joel Turnbuckle pulled a cigar box from the shelf in his closet. A box that carried his secrets as easily as the river carried barges. From the box, Joel withdrew several objects.

A barehead GEC Huckleberry Boys Knife that wasn’t much to look at to start but was one of Joel’s prized possessions. His grandfather had purchased that knife in ‘14 when GEC knives weren’t so pricey and were made a touch simpler. Granddad Turnbuckle had bought it to hand to his grandson on Joel’s next birthday. This one with the red jigged handle was the same bone and steel material as the fancier 15’s that fetched hundreds of dollars nowadays but Joel wouldn’t trade this one for a croker sack of those. And the way this beauty sang through bark and twine made a fella think twice about just what it was, made a thing valuable. Its blade was sharp as gossip in town. And the handle gleamed like the spiny tail of a catfish out in the afternoon sun.

Next was a curious item. It had “grown legs” from a porch rail once when Joel was visiting his grandparents. A flat, pock marked fossil, that Joel imagined must be a petrified pancake turtle, though his grandmother had said it was just something his grandpa picked up during a visit to the coast. A wild tale Joel only half believed. He kept it for luck. Found things are always lucky.

Joel next pocketed two loaded dice and three marbles that still held stories of games played in the summer shade of a cottonwood tree. He figured those dice could buy him a soda down at Emmett’s shop if he played ‘em right, and them marbles, well, they were magic enough to trade for a whole afternoon of games and adventures with Jasper and the twins.

Jasper was Joel’s best friend since diaper days … skinny as a fence post and twice as stubborn, with a cowlick that stuck up like a rooster’s comb no matter how much water his mama poured on it. Jasper fancied himself the brains of their operations, always coming up with grand schemes like building a raft out of milk crates or digging for Confederate gold in Miss Lottie's tomato patch. He was quick with a slingshot, quicker with a lie, and loyal enough to take the blame when Joel “accidentally” let the goats loose again.

The twins, Sadie and Sam, were a whole different breed of trouble. Sadie could outrun any boy in town and had a stare that could peel paint off a barn door. Sam barely spoke, but when he did, it was something worth remembering, or something that got them all grounded for a week. The four of them made up the “Huckleberry Bunch,” named after the knife Joel carried and the stories they swore were true, even when they weren’t. Together, they turned every dusty summer day into a chapter of mischief, misadventure, and the kind of golden chaos that makes grown-ups sigh and kids never forget.

Joel went out the back door quiet so he wouldn’t rattle the screen and wake up Uncle Deke, who’d fallen asleep mid-spit in the porch rocker, chaw still tucked behind his lip. The morning was thick with that sweet, syrupy hush before the world got noisy. The Huckleberry knife was tucked in his pocket and his fingers kept brushing it like they needed reminding this wasn’t just another day of fence painting and being hollered at for feeding pickles to the mule.

Joel had a plan, sure as Sunday. Down by Widow Harper’s broken-down dock, he and Jasper had buried a rusted lunch tin filled with “treasure” … old coins, a harmonica with only three good notes, and a scribbled map of “Indian Cave” they’d copied from a paperback novel. The twins were meeting them there, Sadie with her trusty BB gun and Sam carrying his father’s compass like it pointed to magic instead of north. With the dice and marbles clinking in his pants pocket like loose change in a gambler’s coat, and the fossil tucked in the other pocket for good luck, Joel set off to reclaim the riches of childhood, where every path led to a story, and every lie was just a truth waiting to happen.

Along the way, Joel remembered some of the lore about his Huckleberry Boys Knife his grandfather had given him. That knife near became a legend all its own. Joel said it could skin a catfish underwater and whittle a toothpick from a fencepost without splitting a grain. But one day, during the county fair, Joel got to boasting louder than a steamboat whistle and challenged the mayor's boy, Jeb, to a knife-throwing contest. The Huckleberry flew clean through three apples, clipped the ribbon off Miss Abigail’s bonnet, and pinned the ribbon to a church bulletin … all in one throw. Jeb, the mayor’s boy, never quite recovered. One minute he was strutting around like he owned the fair, the next he was standing slack-jawed while Joel’s knife turned fruit, ribbon, and sacred paper into one perfect spectacle. Folks noticed Jeb stopped entering into contests after that.

Now, in true Huck Finn spirit, Joel wasn’t one to waste daylight. He took that Huckleberry knife and set off down the river trail to meet up with Jasper and the twins, slicing reeds and chasing trapped minnows from a creek’s muddy clutches like some backwoods Robin Hood. Joel Turnbuckle reveled in the kind of freedom only a Huck-hearted boy could truly understand. Joel knew the best kind of fortune was the kind you made with dirty hands and a wild imagination. That some treasures aren’t buried in the ground but carried in the heart. And some lived in the kind of summer magic that never really fades.


RAD9xyB.jpeg
 
98-EDFCC3-B39-A-4-D55-BE9-F-9-A9771-F004-FD.jpg
94-B5-C963-3410-4337-89-AA-14582527331-B.jpg



It was one of those times when an eboy.con seller honestly depicted and described his knife. I bought the Sodbuster specifically because it's black plastic handles were cracked clean through, and swinging on an arc on the center pin. I'd found a piece of elk antler in the dog chew aisle that had the right curve and length, so had been looking for a knife on which it might fit.

Watch yourself with the heat!
 
Last edited:
Amir Fleschwund said:
D9-E8-AC76-CF41-4-A4-C-9623-74-A402-CB80-ED.jpg
4583-C8-A4-DB20-47-AB-A03-A-F71-F7-CAA37-BD.jpg

It was one of those times when an eboy.con seller honestly depicted and described his knife. I bought the Sodbuster specifically because it's black plastic handles were cracked clean through, and swinging on an arc on the center pin. I'd found a piece of elk antler in the dog chew aisle that had the right curve and length, so had been looking for a knife on which it might fit.

Watch yourself with the heat!
Click to expand...
Wonderful job Jeff.👍🏻
 
Amir Fleschwund said:
D9-E8-AC76-CF41-4-A4-C-9623-74-A402-CB80-ED.jpg
4583-C8-A4-DB20-47-AB-A03-A-F71-F7-CAA37-BD.jpg

It was one of those times when an eboy.con seller honestly depicted and described his knife. I bought the Sodbuster specifically because it's black plastic handles were cracked clean through, and swinging on an arc on the center pin. I'd found a piece of elk antler in the dog chew aisle that had the right curve and length, so had been looking for a knife on which it might fit.

Watch yourself with the heat!
Click to expand...
Pics aren't showing, Jeff :(
 
Amir Fleschwund said:
98-EDFCC3-B39-A-4-D55-BE9-F-9-A9771-F004-FD.jpg
94-B5-C963-3410-4337-89-AA-14582527331-B.jpg



It was one of those times when an eboy.con seller honestly depicted and described his knife. I bought the Sodbuster specifically because it's black plastic handles were cracked clean through, and swinging on an arc on the center pin. I'd found a piece of elk antler in the dog chew aisle that had the right curve and length, so had been looking for a knife on which it might fit.

Watch yourself with the heat!
Click to expand...
Nice job :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top