Winter’s tale

Ed –

This hand-made knife is now

part of James’ hunting kit My teenage son and his friends went out late on a very wintery night in his mate’s car to get a burger.

Despite my warnings they got stuck in snow over the top of upper Weardale (beautiful grouse moor, by the way). My lad called me to help and I grumpily went out in my Landy to retrieve them and get them home safe. It was 1am at this point, hence grumpy and cursing.

We made his mate’s car safe and as I am a bit of a softy I took them the rest of the 15-mile journey in very bad weather to get their fast food.

The driver of the abandoned car could not thank me enough and was extremely relieved to be out of the mess and tried to give me cash as a thank you – I refused, of course.

A couple of weeks later, Mathew (the driver) knocked on the door and handed me this beautiful hunting knife, hand-made by him, including the best leather sheath, as a thank you for the rescue.

For a 20-year-old to hand-craft these stunning knives, mostly self-taught, is fantastic, the knife is the best knife I have got in my hunting kit and is worth every bit of grumpy effort that night.

Mathew is trying to get his own business going and I was so wrong to judge him as a typical fastfood teenager type versus a young true craftsman.

James Prescott , County Durham

It’s good to hear traditional skills are being kept alive.