Ron LaClair
In Rembrance
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2004
- Messages
- 1,298
- Reaction score
- 46
Cool photo and neat stuff but I just can't see a buff hunter carrying such a large heavy blade when a Russell skinner would of been better suited to the task.
That is beautiful! I love displays like that. Could you tell us about the rifle? It looks from the trigger guard to be an early model TC. .50?
Try butchering a buffalo sometime, I think you'll want somethin bigger than a Russell skinner..
You don't have the market cornered on butchering buff or other large game. I've done many as have others. Just because the original knife this one is patterned from was in a beaded sheath doesn't mean it was used in the manner described.
When the term "Buffalo Hunter" is used, one generally thinks of the ones who about wiped the buffs off the planet. The ones who shot and skinned 30 or so a day and left the animal to rot in the sun. They were only concerned with getting the hide off fast and easy. That knife you are depicting simply wouldn't work well in that type of situation. Sure, you can hang a big critter up with a loader and use that axe to do the job, good luck doing 30 in a day on the ground.
The fact that these big knives were made and used and the many original drawings and sketches showing big knives being worn and carried confirms that they were indeed used in such a manner.
As a side note, you call this a buffalo knife and your web site shows the sheath right under the original with the caption, Original Indian Beaded Buffalo Knife Sheath. Kind of makes one believe it from the knife.
Well that's how you may think of it, but the robe and tongue trade which started in the 1830's and the somewhat later meat trade (the trade that Biffalo Bill got his moniker in) started well before the hide hunter's period (1870's)and had a huge impact on the buffalo - the robe trade in particular since most were calves and cows. By the mid 1840's there are several primary resources that show that buffalo hunting had had a big impact: no buffalo within 500 miles of St Louis, Bent's Fort closed in the mid-1840's due to lack of buffalo, etc.When the term "Buffalo Hunter" is used, one generally thinks of the ones who about wiped the buffs off the planet.
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