Back nearly ten years ago when I began the knifemaking journey, I was fascinated by the idea of making a knife from something special, not just from stuff you could buy on Ebay. While I've purchased a zillion dollars worth of supplies since then, the fascination for "story" never left. I'll admit that at first glance, this knife looks like what it is: a quality forged stick tang hunter in the ABS style. This is one knife where there is more to it than is immediately obvious.

For several months now, I've been planning a series of "story" knives that I intend to carry through the rest of my knifemaking career. I'm a Texan, with roots here back to 1855. I love Texas and its history, and I hope one day we can be an independent nation again. With all that in mind, this knife represents the initial public offering of my Texas Heritage knife series using historical materials from Texas. This series will be limited to three knives per year, including a bowie and a hunter. As my skills grow, the knife complexity will increase, but one thing will remain the same: Texas first, Texas forever.

This Texas Heritage Hunter features a forged blade of 5160 steel. The steel came from the first knifemaking workshop ever conducted by the Texas Knifemakers' Guild, in 2016. The guard on this knife is from the Shackelford County ghost town of Raynor. Raynor was founded in 1888 as the county seat, but abandoned by 1904 as Aspermont took over the county seat. The steel used here comes from the gate of the Raynor Cemetery. Although the steel is blued, the front of the guard retains some of the rust-pitted character that it came with. Right behind the guard, the fluted spacer is wrought iron from the rail of the first railroad into Dallas in 1872. The handle is spalted sycamore, stabilized with a slight brown dye, from the grounds of the Texas Capital building. My brother went to UT about ten years ago with a guy who worked grounds crew there, and this piece came home as firewood. All together, there's a lot of history in this piece!