My Dad passed away in 2015 at the age of 99 and lived a full life. He was a hunter, among many other things, and grew up the old way with hunting and fishing. Long story short, I miss him. But while he was alive, he gave me this knife but with no story attached to it as his hunting knife was given to another family member. This knife looks like a skinning knife and I regret not asking about it but he had it by his desk and not with all the kitchen utensils. It is a very large knife.



My friend was willing to re-handle it and I wanted to use antlers from my last whitetail buck I shot a couple of years ago. My health hasn't been the best so I wasn't able to hunt last year but I'm hoping it will get better so I can go out again but I don't know.



So here is the transformation of this old knife into a heirloom tribute knife that my son will inherit some day. My Dad handed down his old Marlin 336 lever action to my son before he passed so this would be a good addition. Something from his Grandpa and his Dad.





My dad was a full blood Dakota Sioux Native American and was named ceremonial chief of our tribe before he passed away. I wanted something to honor that so my friend thought of adding an Indian head nickel from his birth year to it which he will imbed in the end.  I found one on eBay and that is the last piece to this knife.



I'll post it when it's done.  Longer term plan is for a beaded sheath but that will take longer.

That's a damn fine tribute!

Outstanding tribute to your Dad.

That is really cool

That's pretty bad OP!

Bad as in awesome

Bad ass, OP. Sounds like yer pa had a story or three to tell.

Nice job, thanks for sharing!

It's all done.  I liked how it turned out. The coin was glued, pinned and peened into place so it is not moving.

That knife turned out awesome Mojo.

You put a lot of thought and craftsmanship into it, great looking knife.