Battleship Texas Bowie

J

jkf96a

Well-Known Member
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This one will be at Blade Texas. It has elements from the Battleship Texas. The "sky" contains gun turret bearings, the intermediate gray color. The "island" has ship steel and shrapnel from Okinawa. The "sea" is regular 1084/15n20. The setting "sun" is a rivet from the ship, outlined in nickel. The fittings are ship steel/15n20 damascus, and the handle material is deck wood from the ship. The spacers are 1914 and 1948 coins for the ship's active years. I've got a guy making a custom box out of some very similar old yellow pine to match.
 
That's very cool! Do you have documentation to support all of those materials? I ask because I just sourced some South American teak decking from the USS New Jersey, and the supplier is absolutely adamant that anything made from it be accompanied by his certificate of authenticity to keep the history alive. I agree in thinking that is important. Nice work!
 
Provenance is always interesting. For the wood, I do have a COA as it was purchased on the secondary market. The ship steel was given to me by a guy who got it from a guy who didn't have permission to give it away. Battleship folks are really picky about who gets their stuff in the first place. Okinawa shrapnel was given to me by a guy in Okinawa who runs a museum there. I have email chain correspondence and the shipping label to back that part of the story. The gun turret bearings, I found an article that listed the supplier that donated the replacement bearings. I emailed them and asked what they did with the old ones. When I build a piece like this, I document everything in a packet for the purchaser. Given the way I tend to acquire things, by asking for "junk" but from "the thing", and given that I typically don't pay, folks have no reason to lie.
 
This one sold Friday morning at Blade TX. Sure changes your attitude when you've got a big stack of 100's in your pocket :)
 
jkf96a said:
This one sold Friday morning at Blade TX. Sure changes your attitude when you've got a big stack of 100's in your pocket :)
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It is a beautiful knife with a cool history in its materials. I hope you got what you were asking, it was worth every penny!
 
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