Long lost hunting companion back at my side

[xtrema312]

No this isn't about my old hunting buddy.  It is about my old knife.  I got this knife about 35 years ago.  It was purchased with hard earned money from summer and weekend jobs along with most of my hunting gear.  I had one just about like it, but a little longer.  One or the other knife was always on my hip back then.  Those were the days a boy could carry around a knife and none thought anything about it.  I carried a pocket knife and even a belt pouch folder to school everyday back then.  The longer hunter was stolen from our barn one year during a deer butchering and processing day.  A few guys stopped in along with one of friends.  At the end of the day the knife was gone forever.  This one served me well a couple more years until I lost it on a hunt one October in about 1982 or 83.  I was disappointed to say the least to have lost two nice knives.   I never did buy another fixed blade hunting knife, and to this day use folders.  

About 5 years ago I was hunting in an area I hunted a lot back in high school and collage.  One day I sat down in a good looking spot for an evening hunt.  As I brushed away some leaves for a quiet place to set-up my ambush spot, I found my old knife.  I couldn't believe it!  Over 20 years it has been there.  The stag handle was long gone as was the once flawless finish and razor edge.   I cleaned it up a little and oiled it some.  I tried to find someone a couple times to clean, and fix it up for me, but couldn't find anyone interested in working on an old knife.  Then I found Sam Koger in the Knife forum on this site.  Sam fixed her up for me while maintaining some of the history on the blade like I wanted.  

This is really not about my old knife.  It's about Sam and the many offers he has put on TG to help sharpen and fix up knives for members of the site.  I just wanted to thank Sam and draw some attention to his current post offering knife repair in the St. Judes auction bid forum #3.   Please bid and have Sam give new life to one or more of your old knives.  Hay if mine can rest in the dirt for 20 years and be ready to hand down to my son as his first hunting knife in a couple more years I am sure there is hope for your old hunting knife.

http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=151;t=000132

[Teacher_of_the_Arcane]

You'll have to be sure to include the Old Boy prominately in your stories of hunting success come fall !!

[rastaman]

Incredible find after all those years!       Great job on the clean-up!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Great story!  Thanks to Sam and all the fine people out there          

[Ricker]

Those Olsen knives are a real favorite of mine.  Cool story.

[DannyBows]

That's one beautiful knife, and one of the best stories I've heard for a long time. How perfect to pick the same spot to set-up 20 years later! I'm glad your "Friend" is home again, and Thanks for sharing that awesome experience.

[Downsouth]

That's very cool! It' good to keep a bit of history going in our lives!

[Hood]

That's awesome!

[Gerry]

Great story about the knife and the people involved; enjoy for many  years.

[ron w]

Very neat stuff. A guy that I worked with does some logging in the Adirondacks each year to help pay the taxes and such. While walking down a skid row he found a blade from an old hunting knife. He let me fix it up and then I returned it to him and he said, "you like that old stuff keep it" so I did. I was made by some company in Germany and imported to the states by the Ideal Shirt Co..That old girl really hold an edge. It's good to see someone here on the site can do restorations on old tools of the trade.......