3^8 
FOREST AND «^ 
A, 
[April 29, 1899. 
to the left. I listened, and could hear a turkey walking 
through the weeds and grass. I gradually rose up on 
my knees, and there, not over 7sft. away, stood a gobbler 
with its keen eyes glistening, trying to make me out. 
The right hand clutched the gun as it lay across my knees, 
and in a twinkling of an eye the hammer was cocked and 
gun went to shoulder. By the time it got there he had 
made me out and had sprang to run, but the second step 
he made old Betsy spoke out and he dropped dead. At 
the report of the gun the rest of his companions took 
fright and started to fly away. One came too close — 
about 30yds. away, I gave it the other barrel and it 
dropped to the earth, I slipped the cord on Loie and 
she had a picnic after it, for it was not quite dead. She 
chased it around in the grass for a few seconds and came 
on it where it had fallen. I threw them across my shoul- 
der and started to my wagon. Thus ended an exciting 
and careful piece of strategy, and I had the satisfaction 
of a nice double. At 4 o'clock I was at home, where a 
loving and smiling wife met me with a cheerful kiss. It 
was a day long to be remembered. 
S. W. EVERITT. 
Hunting Knives* 
South Hanover, Mass., March 2. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I am interested in the recent notes in Forest 
AND Stream regarding hunting knives, for experience 
taught me years ago the value of a good knife and the 
difficulty of getting one which could be depended on to 
cut. 
My hunting trips have extended in point of time froir 
'69 to within a few years ofif and on, and in place from 
New Brunswick to California. They began with a two- 
seasons' trip, when a youngster in company with trappers 
in Nebraska and Dakota, and ended with a trip among 
the. "billies" on Santa Catalina. 
While I have seen a few times when a cleaver a 
quarter as heavy as my rifle, or a machete as long as 
my artn would have been handy, I have seen a great 
many times when a keen blade S or 6in. long was exactly 
what I needed. My only encounter which had to be 
settled with a knife was with a half-wild hog, and it is not 
often one. has to do this. 
But when j^our game is down and has to be bled, skinned 
and dressed, and when innumerable things have to .be 
done, for which you want a knife which will cut keenly 
and stay sharp with decent usage, then the difference be- 
tween a cheap dollar knife and one skillfully made be- 
comes apparent. 
Tradition tells us that the sword of Richard Coeur dc 
Lion, in its master's hand, cut through the iron handle of 
PHILBROOK. 
a mace at one blow. And the sword of Saladin divided 
into two parts at one blow a silken handkerchief tossed 
into the air. 
I have only had tvpenty years' experience in tempering 
steel, so I may be pardoned for being a little incredulous' 
about the knife which cuts open a frozen can of oeans, 
arid then is in shape to dress carefully the deer which 
has given up its life to aflford me one of the keenest 
pleasures savage man enjoys. • ; 
. -It is. a .fact that few hunters know the lux ivy of a good 
knife. What I ha.ve evolved for a knife -from my ex- 
perience as a hunter and steel worker is singularly like 
what Mr. Hough suggests as the ideal in size and shape, if 
I catch his meaning. N. W. PHrLBROOK. 
Philadelphia. — Editor Forest and Stream: I inclose 
a photograph of what I consider the best hunting knife 
made, and as there has been a good deal of discussion on 
this subject I thought it would be of interest to other 
Forest and Stream readers. The length of the whole 
knife is 83^in. with a blade of 4^in. long. 
At the back the blade is nearly 3-i6in. in thickness and 
is i3-i6in. in width. 
The. knife has an ebony handle, carved and checked, 
which gives a splendid hold. It is a beautiful piece of 
workmanship and as strong as any knife made. You can 
open cans or anything with it. 
Yotx can get them a little larger than the above, but you 
don't want it, as this size will answer every purpose. 
These knives are used by nearly all the guides in North- 
em Maine and that is where I first saw them. 
R. D. B., Jr. 
A few opinions of my own in regard to a hunting 
knife were published in a recent Forest and Stream. 
Since then one of my friends, a poet, and myself have met 
in executive session and devised a knife model. My 
friend the poet is Ernest McGaffey, author of the tasty 
book "Poems of Rod and Gun," published by Scribners' 
some years ago; author of another volume of poems, 
and of a great many good things in prose and poetry 
which have been published in the best of our periodicals. 
Mr, McGaffey is a lawyer, and likewise a newspaper 
writer. These things he does for pleasure, but he con- 
siders the real business of life, just as I do, the follow- 
ing of the sports of the rod and gun. We usually call 
Mr. McGaffey Ernie out here in Chicago, which shows 
how used to association with genius we are, and also 
what a good fellow Ernie is. » 
Well, anyhow, Ernie McGaffey and I foregathered at 
my lodge the other evening and we devised a knife. 
We laid upon the table in front of us all my hunting 
knives, a dozen or so from the Hudson Bay knife down. 
We threw out all the bad points of these, and tried to 
keep all the good points, and the result was something 
which in our mind was a verv beautiful and perfect 
creation. With proper sense of our worth, we named 
the mode! after ourselves, but in deference to the fact 
that there have been other hunters besides ourselves 
and before ourselves, we called the knife after one of the 
early and distinguished American hunters. I don't mind 
telling something of the points vyhich se^ro?4 desirable to 
y§- in a hunting- knif^, 
In the first place we though 
extended clear back thror 
piece of steel, so that if a 
he could take off the h? 
and still cut with it a ' 
We thought that 
mode] the blade ' 
offset in front ol 
handle with full c ,t 
the backbone, but 
It has no foolish joint, 
a good skinning curve. 
.e should be 
J, all in one 
break his knife 
. end of it in rags 
,ild be short. In our 
ig. It has no table or 
at runs clean back to the 
,e. It has no ridge along 
' • eled straight to the edge, 
jt is cunningly turned up with 
The blade is deep enough to be 
strong, and runs up to an inch in depth at about the 
place where the curve begins on the point. The top 
of the blade swings up in a gentle curve to the top of 
the handle, which again swells in the middle, and then 
drops gently down at the butt, being curved on the 
under surface also. This gives a solid, substantial and 
not ungraceful handle, which offers a very good hold 
to the hand. The handle is about 5in. long if I re- 
member correctly, and it is made of two plates of bone, 
corrugated and slightly swelled in the middle, so that 
the knife will wedge in the sheath. To make the knife 
handsome and strong, the sides of the handle are 
strengthened by plates of brass, as in the Hudson Bay 
knife. We also Icept the Hudson Bay idea of the two 
big brass-headed rivets through the handle, which finish 
and strengthen the knife. Of course there is no guard 
to the knife. We improved the handle of the Hudson 
rodgers. 
kephart. 
has recently appeared in Forest and Stream con- 
cerning the best hunting knife. It reminds me a little of 
what you used to publish concerning the best rifle for 
general use. Men seemed to want one which should be 
equally deadly on grizzly bears and chipmunks — which 
should be capable of boring a moose through from, end 
to end and yet should not send its ball so far but they 
could have target practice on the lawn. 
The aged hunter who contemplates buying a knife 
naturally asks himself what the knife is to be used for. 
He does not purchase a machete for the purpose of 
sharpening his lead pencil, nor a penknife to cut his 
way through the jungles of Cuba. The men who talk 
about a hunting knife wish to secure — ^I assume — ag 
implement to be used on the big game which they may 
kill. With this knife they wish to cut the animal's 
Bay knife by boring a hole through the end of the 
handle, through which a thong can be passed, fastening 
it to the scabbard if so desired, or giving the advantage 
which a wrist loop sometimes* offers with a knife. Mr. 
McGaffey and I hardly know whether to pride ourselves 
most upon the blade or the handle of our knife, but 
we think both are good, though altogether the opposite 
of the conventional idea in hunting knives. We ex- 
pect to get a strong, well-balanced knife, with a good 
handful of heavy handle. We expect that the hang of 
the knife will be such that one can do the most deli- 
cate X)f skinning with it, and that the steel will be such 
that it will both take and hold an edge, not too soft and 
not too hard. The usefulness of a hunting knife de- 
pends very much on the judicious temper in the steel. 
The Kephart Knife* 
Dr. W. L. Lake, of Fulton, N. Y., writes to-day on this 
very question of a hunting knife, and he mentions a 
knife which I presume has been designed by that in- 
vestigative and thoughtful sportsman, Mr. Horace Kep- 
hart, of St. Louis. I have never seen one of Mr. Kep- 
hart's knives, but I will warrant it is a good one. I 
think I shall get one of these to add to my battery, and 
should the model which my friend the poet and I have 
designed ever come to manufacture, I shall see to it 
that Mr. Kephart gets one of the first editions. 
This I want to do, so that Mr. Kephart will feel bad 
about his knife when he sees how much more brass and 
things there are on our knife. While I write somewhat 
in ignorance, I will venture the assertion that Mr. Kep- 
hart has bored no hole through the handle of his knife. 
This argument I will take up further, when the poetic 
carver above mentioned gets further along. Meantime 
I must append Dr. Lake's comment, which is as below: 
"A blade sin. long, no guard, and the sheath extends 
half-way up the handle. This the makers call the Kephart 
knife. It is my idea of a good 'meat' knife round 
camp (to borrow your adjective anent dogs). Just a 
plain business knife, made of steel, that will take an edge 
and keep it too. The point is strong and won't break 
off like a cHp point, found on the ordinary bowie pat- 
tern." E. Hough. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have been int?rf§t-fd an4 diverted by the matter ■whicji 
THE HARDVifARE STORE KNIKE. 
throat, to disembowel it and to remove its hide. For 
such purposes the best knife is what we used to call a 
butcher knife, and this is a butcher's knife; that is the 
knife used by the man whose trade it is to cut the 
throats and remove the hides of animals day after day, 
year in and year out. 
This knife, of which I send on outline, has a light 
blade, with a decided curve in it, which permits a long 
stroke during the whole of which it cuts. Straight knives 
admit of only a short stroke, which must be often re- 
peated, and this adds greatly to the labor of skinning. 
If a knife is purchased such as I have indicated an. ef- 
fort should be made to get a good blade in it. Very 
likely the salesman may be willing to try it on a stone 
for you so that you may be sure of what you are buyiftg. 
When you have a good one take care of it. 
These knives come in various sizes. My preference 
is for one with a blade about 454in. long and a handle 
4in. If I had a good one that I expected to use much 
I should wrap the handle, which is likely to be a little 
light, with a string of wet rawhide or with heavy 
twine. This gives a better hand-hold and prevents slip- 
ping, which you do not care to have happen if your 
knife has a keen edge. P. ■ 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Progress in Minesota. 
Chicago, 111., April 22.— Just too late for use ki last 
week's Forest and Stream, I received a letter from Mr. 
S. F. FuUerton, lace game warden of Minnesota, bear- 
ing upon points in the game law which has been enacted 
in that State this spring. It is gratifying to note that 
Mr. Fullerton's interest in protective matters does not 
terminate with the expiration of his term of office, and 
especially satisfactory to note that steady progress in 
protective matters still continues in this representative 
State. .... 
No doubt the greatest step forward in the Minnesota 
law is the stopping of spring shooting,- as legislation of" 
that sort has alwaj's been, .unpopular in many of the 
western States,, and indeed impossible of enactment ' in 
the majority of them. ' Michigan is shaky on spring shoot- 
ing, and Wisconsin has always been wabbly, but they 
may both take courage from the re-enforcement offered 
by the strong body of Minnesota protectionists. 
Of equal importance with this measure, perhaps of 
greater importance, were it capable of equally easy en- 
forcement, is the stopping of the sale of prairie chickens, 
grouse and quail. This is indeed progress, and its re- 
sult will be seen directly, although this measure will throw 
arduous duties upon the executive officers, since Minne- 
sota is a vast country and possessed of many wily 
dealers. - _ ■ 
Not so certain is the wisdom of the license fee matter, 
although this is a measure agreed upon at the interstate 
warden's meeting last year. The license idea is still in 
an experimental stage in the opinion of very many, al- 
though the deer license is a thing which has no doubt 
come to stay, and Miilnesota simply follows the prece- 
dent of Wisconsin and Michigan in attempting to set a 
partial limit upon the ever-increasing tide of non-resi- 
dent deer hunting traffic. If the idea of a non-resident 
license be distasteful to non-residents, and apparently un- 
fair, it is to be said upon the other side that it has many 
arguments in its favor. The men of Minnesota have 
looked about them, as have the men of Wisconsin and 
Michigan, and discovered that there are more hunters 
than there are deer, and as the stock of deer does not 
increase, while the stock of hunters is constantly and 
largely augmented, the result has seemed obvious, -that 
in a short time the supply of deer will be altogether 
gone. We have in the Middle West but these three States 
which hold pine forests where the white tail deer Js 
found. Upon the other hand, we have more than a dozen 
States, containing thousands of hunters, all of whom 
turn toward these three States for the enjoyment of their 
sport. Viewed from the standpoint of the resident of 
any one of these States, it seems a fair enough proposi- 
tion to ask a non-resident deer hunter to pay a reasonable 
price for the royal sport of hunting the deer. Without 
doubt or question there must be restriction of some sort. 
But I must allow Mr. FuUerton to make his own comment 
upon a law which is so good and so much to his own 
liking. He writes as follows: 
"I think we have accomplished more for the protec- 
tion of game in Minnesota during the session of the pres- 
ent Legislature than I had really hoped to see accom- 
plished in the next five years. We have nailed down 
Forest and Stream's Plank with spikes, and nailed it 
down in such a manner that I believe it will so remain 
for all time to come. 
"We have stopped, by law, the sale of prairie chickens, 
pintajled grouse and quail and stopped their shipment 
