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November holds two of America's favorite holidays: deer season and Thanksgiving. For most of us, deer hunting is our only chance at big game. Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for the opportunity.
Webster Marble's earliest knives paired leather handles with stag pommels. Later pommels were aluminum. Full stag handles were always an extra cost option. (Clint Dunathan)
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Whether you hunt from a heated blind over bait or sit a cold stump and use doe pee for deodorant, bagging a stag has the same reward: lean red meat and, if you're lucky, a rack of antlers.
Dark close grained German stag on an early DeWeese model knife (left) contrasts sharply with light course grained Sambar stag (right) on later blade. (Charlie Scott)
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Venison can always find a hungry home. But what to do with antlers?
"Popcorn" stag comes from the base section of some antlers and is a much sought after handle material. This knife has an early aluminum pommel. (Jesse Weasler)
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Eventually, magnificent or not, most staghorn travels the familiar road from living room to family room to den to basement to landfill where rodents gnaw it away in nature's own recycling program.
Doe skin color of this handle is vintage Sambar at its best. (Clint Dunathan)
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A more practical cure for UAS (unwanted antler syndrome) was discovered by our forefathers centuries ago. Make a knife handle. Better yet, have someone else make the handle and spend your time preparing pumpkin pie, cranberry relish and antler pickles.
MARBLE'S classic line still uses stag in both traditional patterns (top) and newer limited edition combinations (bottom).
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No cutler crafted more stag handled knives in greater variety than MARBLE'S. Antler came from several sources. Until WWI, Red Deer, Cervus elephus, stag was imported from Germany. After 1918, Sambar, Cervus unicolor, stag was imported from southeast Asia, primarily India. Rarely, on special order, MARBLE'S fashioned handles from a customer's own Whitetail, Odocoileus virginianus, trophy.
An affordable and functional substitute for genuine stag, jigged bone is particulary popular on pocket knives.
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No matter whether your knife is over-the-counter or custom, a real antler handled blade is a treasure that rekindles memories of hunts past and makes a celebration of hunts to come.
Author's personal favorite is polished stag, a repliica of a rare and seldom seen vintage treatment. Color varies from ivory to slate and ages beautifully.
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So go ahead, make a stag party of Thanksgiving. Crown your table with a rack of antlers and celebrate by carving your venison with a real stag handled knife. Now that's something to be thankful for
Recipe card.
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*Click on images for larger views
© 2006 Arni Dunathan
Arni Dunathan is the author of the newly published collector's guide "The Encyclopedia of Marble's Knives and Sporting Collectables." |
