Responding to ‘My Knife’

JD Basson’s letter about his Elbeco Stock Knife in the May issue interested me because I also have one, and it is one of my favourites.

My knife also has a story. I picked one up in the early 1960s while my father-in-law carried one all the time, which he sharpened on a sand stone so it was well worn down.

Mine I lost. As these knives were not freely available, my father-in-law and I decided that whoever was the first to find two in a shop, that he should buy them.

In 1968 I found two in a shop in Lady Grey for R4.80 each. In today’s terms it was cheap, but at that time a sheep sold for R5.00. I bought both and gave my father-in-law one, but mine was later stolen.

In 1977 when my father-in-law passed away, I asked my mother-in-law if I could have his knife. She returned it to me in a ‘Horseshoe’ tobacco bag, oiled and never used.

I still have this knife. I have used the one blade for skinning numerous antelope and some sheep, and also as a general purpose blade. The big blade has been used for cutting biltong and meat on carcasses. The small blade has been used to castrate many pigs, a number of tollies and one horse colt. Living at the coast I have to watch the rust.

– Colin Stephenson, Eastern Cape