Phillip Gillespies Knife

[Sam Everly]

I got this knife about 3 years ago some of you may have seen at the Norris show .

[Sam Everly]

[Sam Everly]

[Sam Everly]

[Dale Halterman]

Sam, can you give us the blade length and overall length?

Thanks

Dale H

[Sam Everly]

From the front of the hilt the blade is 11 1/2 " long. The handle is 5" long . Overall length is 16 3/4" long . It is hard to tell in the photos but the handle is flat on top and bottom. The sides of the handle are round .The hilt and band are pewter and one piece , and the handle goes up in the pewter band . That means the hilt was poured from the blade end down over the wood . He had to have a mold that came apart around the handle and blade . It would be a very hard pour to do . The hilt helps hold the handle on .      

[Chuck Burrows]

Howdy Sam - Thanks for the pics and the info. I first saw this on Dennis' site and always used as an example that pewter made a pretty fair guard for the naysayers (no it's not iron or brass - but not bad).
As for the pour - not all that hard - I've done some similar albeit not so wide - all you need to use is heavy paper stock - I use manila file folder stock and even on this heavy a pour the blade sucks up the heat fast enough to keep it from burning. Once cooled just tear the paper off, file and sand to finish......

[Sam Everly]

If you look close at the hilt and the band it is all one chunk of pewter. The way it is made you would have had to make a mold around it . You can tell it had a mold from the little air pockets on the top and bottom of the hilt and there is a faint line left in the bottom on the pewter. I too use the heavy paper when casting a nose cap , i love to do them . I have half a buggy spring i found at the old Sitton Forge site, i am going to make this knife out of it . It was sticking out from under a tree root on the river bank , so i dug it out just for that reason .   

[Mike R]

I take it that this knife has a buried tang--or does it extend through the butt and have a rat tail hammered over?

[Sam Everly]

Right now the way it is, the tang comes out at the rear of the handle . It is about 1/8 in dia. but the rear of the handle is banged up . There is a chip out of the handle at the back side about 1/2" wide and 1 inch long. I would say when new the tang did not show ,but only 1/8" or so under the wood . 

[Dale Halterman]

That's a big knife, Sam. Were knives that size common in the hills?

Any idea how it was carried? What type of scabbard would go with it?

Dale H

[Sam Everly]

I am just guessing, but i think he made it right before he joined the union army .It is to big for a hunting knife,I think. As far as a sheath , i have no idea . I have seen some sheaths for bowies from that time, i think it may have had one of them . Just covering the blade with a loop on back for the belt .