>>516325>A camper has use for a common-sense sheath-knife, sometimes for dressing big game, but oftener for such
homely work as cutting sticks, slicing bacon, and fry-
ing "spuds." For such purposes a rather thin, broad-
pointed blade is required, and it need not be over four
or five inches long. Nothing is gained by a longer
blade, and it would be in one's way every time he sat
down. Such a knife, bearing the marks of hard usage,
lies before me. Its blade and handle are each 4j
inches long, the blade being 1 inch wide, J inch thick
on the back, broad pointed, and continued through the
handle as a hasp and riveted to it. It is tempered
hard enough to cut green hardwood sticks, but soft
enough so that when it strikes a knot or bone it will,
if anything, turn rather than nick; then a whetstone
soon puts it in order. The Abyssinians have a saying,
"If a sword bends, we can straighten it; but if it breaks,
who can mend it ? " So with a knife or hatchet. The
>handle of this knife is of oval cross-section, long enough to give a good grip for the whole hand, and with no
sharp edges to blister one's hand. It has a | inch
knob behind the cutting edge as a guard, but there is
no guard on the back, for it would be useless and in
the way. The handle is of light but hard wood, } inch
thick at the butt and tapering to h inch forward, so as
to enter the sheath easily and grip it tightly. If it were
heavy it would make the knife drop out when I stooped
over. The sheath has a slit frog binding tightly on the
belt, and keeping the knife well up on my side. This
knife weighs only 4 ounces. It was made by a coun-
try blacksmith, and is one of the homeliest things I
ever saw; but it has outlived in my affections the score
of other knives that I have used in competition with
it, and has done more work than all of them put to-
gether.
