My Grandfather was a man of.... many skills.... kinda. 

He wasn't the type to have a solid 9 to 5, he had a few steady jobs throughout his life, but mainly he was an odds and ends kind of guy. The one mainstay of his money making ways was to refinish old wooden furniture. He would sand it down removing the ugly scars and bruises left behind by carelessness exposing a natural beauty beneath the wounds. When the old chests, tables, nightstands...ect were finished they would load them up and take them to a giant flea market in Rodgers Ohio to sell. They made a little bit of a living doing that and turned nothing into something. 

By the time I arrived they had slowed down and pretty much gave it up. My Grandfather would still go to garage sales and flea markets every weekend looking for a looked over treasure, or two. He collected quite a few knives this way and really had some beauties at one point. Anyhow, one day he showed up with an old stand in the bed of his truck, it was a bruised looking piece and he needed me unload it for him so of course I did. It was mid summer and the heat always took a toll on him with his health problems, he looked like a fish out of water every summer. Little did I know that me unloading that old stand would lead to a couple weeks of learning alongside my Grandfather. 

Taking a light sand paper to the wood brought fourth the hidden beauty of wormy chestnut wood. The light damage done by beetles and what not leads to an extremely rustic look that commands the eye's attention. For me, it's natural and deep wood that has an overall comfortable feel. We finished that stand after a couple of weeks of elbow grease and TLC, to my surprise it found it's way into the old farm house instead of a flea market where it would have brought a pretty penny. When I see that stand I think of my Grandfather and that summer, he is gone but the memory lives on, soaked deep inside the wood grain of that stand.

All that leads me to this....

Many moons ago when GEC was in their infancy they rolled out a #73 scout with jigged chestnut bones scales. The bone sports a deep and rich chocolatey brown die, along with a unique worm groove jig running the length of the scale. Whenever I've seen these knives I've thought of that memory I shared with my Grandfather. Greg Holmes over at TSA knives had one available and after my tax return hit I had it on it's way home. 

The knife is everything I hoped for!

The scales are something else, they almost seem to change in direct sunlight exposing a hidden warmth. The jig is classic and comfortable in the hand, the entire knife invokes memories of an old trapline and a Remington Bullet knife from 1925.... It's a keep!!!