The Patriot Knife

I was able to build just 21 of these very special knives in time to make them available to you for Christmas. In fact, I just finished them up. 

And here is why they are so special.

The Story

As chance would have it, in the summer of 2012 I was lucky to be in position to obtain some very special wood. During a violent storm a very old and venerable oak tree was blown down by near hurricane force winds.  This old and majestic Virginia Oak had been growing since the time General George Washington had led his ragtag army of merchants, shop keepers, and farmers to victory against the greatest and most formidable Army and Navy in the world, the might of the British Empire.  

This mighty oak had withstood drought, disease, and fire for over 250 years.  It had watched the birth of this nation and had grown strong and tall with this country through the wars of 1812, the 1st World War, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.  It had spread its leaves and given shade to a country that had willfully and willingly sacrificed the blood of its most precious treasure, it’s young men and women, time and time again so that those less fortunate could see a light parting the dark clouds of oppression, the light of the bright rays of freedom.  

It was a tree never felled by the woodsmen’s axe and it took the fierce power of a higher hand to tear its mighty roots from the rich Virginia soil it had drawn nourishment from for over two millennia.  

What makes this tree even more special is the fact that it is from the original farm owned by George Washington on the banks of the Potomac River, near Mount Vernon, the Historic Washington home where he lived and farmed.  

After obtaining the wood, I designed a very special knife simply called the Patriot.  It is a working man’s knife similar in many aspects to a knife that many of that time would have carried, the exception of course being that it is a folding knife and not a fixed bade.  That aside, it has a Bowiesque style blade with a slight recurve much like a colonial hunter would have carried on the hunt for a Whitetail Deer and subsequently would have also carried into battle across the Delaware or perhaps used to stir the fire with during the deadly cold winter at Valley Forge.  

I took this historical wood and rough sawed and quartered the pieces into slabs according to the best look of the wood.  After two hundred years the pieces reflect beautiful grain and spalting not found in contemporary furniture grade oak.  It really is the most beautiful oak I have ever seen.  I then had these pieces treated in a wood stabilizing process that impregnates them under an intense vacuum process with a resin that hardens, protects, and will preserve them for many generations to come.  The handles are then cut to size and then hand contoured and finished to a beautiful satin sheen which brings out and showcases the natural beauty and character of these striking handle showpieces.  

To further memorialize these special edition knives, we designed a custom die struck coin finished in gun metal copper (common in that time) showing a famous profile of Washington from his time as 1st President of the United States. Each coin is hand inset into the handle of each knife providing a perfect complement to the historical oak handle package. 

As a young man, of 16, George Washington worked as a surveyor for the Fairfax family and surveyed and mapped large portions of the “vast wilderness” that would later become the burgeoning United States of America.  As a result, we have obtained copies of the original plot surveys hand drawn by Washington himself showing the original farm where this mighty oak tree was located.  

Every knife comes with a reproduction of that map showing with an X, exactly where the tree that provided these handles was located.  Each serialized knife comes with a matched serialized letter of provenance and the matched serialized map to complete an heirloom package which allows you to hold something in your hand that directly ties you back to the birth of this great country and to the presence of it’s true founding father, George Washington, the first President of the United States of America.