[Phil Yearout]

Have you ever spent more time and effort on something than it could ever possibly be worth? We were getting my mother-in-law's house ready to sell and I was out by the shed; looked down and saw the outline of a knife in the mud. Of course I dug it out; it had definitely been there a while! Full of mud and rust but I brought it home anyway. Soaked it in a bowl of WD-40 for a couple weeks, then went after it with a wire wheel on my Dremel. The metal's pretty pitted up as you might imagine. I made it for a Camillus as it looks almost exactly like an old two-blade I have, and sure enough. I was never sure if the scales on mine were real bone or plastic, but on this one the one down in the mud looks original while the one that's been exposed to the weather is bleached nearly white. No idea who lost it or when, but I'm betting it was my brother-in-law who just passed; wish he was here to share the story - he'd get a kick out of it...