The outdoors mantra “leave no trace” applies to the world of hunting when brothers Levi and Clayton brown step into the woods during deer season.
When the trigger is pulled, there’s little trace, barely a clue that they’ve brought down a white-tail. Venison goes on the family table, of course, but the teenagers go two steps further.
They make knives from the bones of the deer and spend hours tanning the hide.
It’s like a deer-processing,knife-making emporium at the Brown household, situated on a lovely mountain stream northeast of Pea Ridge.
There’s the workshop where Levi and Clayton make knives and tan hides. In another room that is cool and spotless, there’s ample counter space and all the needed equipment to process the deer they take during a season.
With Arkansas’ liberal bag limit, that can be quite a few.
The nutritious and tasty meat goes pretty fast for the family of seven, said Gary Brown, the boysdad. So do the bones when the brothers put their noses to the grindstone, or in their case, a belt sander, to make a knife.
The teenagers have always admired hunting knives, hand-crafted or factory-made. They jumped at the chance to make their own deer-bone knives. Their dad helped them get started. So did a family friend, Robin Miller, a knife-maker and fl int knapper who live in Lawton, Okla.
When the belt sander quieted after making their first knife, the teenagers admired it with a smile.
“It turned out pretty good,” Levi said.
Dozens of bone knives later, they agree it’s one of the most enjoyable projects they’ve ever tackled.
They give most of their knives away.
Big knife or small, it takes hours to turn out a deer-bone knife.
“You have to boil the bones and get the marrow out,” Clayton explained.
“But first you take out the sinew.”
Sinew is stringy tendon material the young knifemakers use in their craft.
Deer-bone knives are made in two pieces, handle and blade. The blade is inserted into the handle and secured with a home-made glue. The teenagers make it from pine sap, charcoaland horse manure.
Then sinew is wrapped around the junction where blade and handle meet.
The brothers have made knives from larger game.
“Some friends gave us some elk bones and you can make a bigger knife,” Levi said.
Sometimes they’ll fi nd a feather in their outdoor travels and use it to decorate a knife handle.
Their labor of knifemaking love takes hours to turn out a single knife.
Tanning a hide takes longer.
It can take 8 to 10 hours of scraping just to get the hair off the hide. That’s just one step, Clayton said.
They use a hand-made scraper that’s been fashioned out of a lawn mower blade.
There are a lot of steps.
All traces of meat have to be removed. The hide has to be stretched just right.
Another step utilizes the deer’s brain, so even more of the animal is used.
Miller, the Oklahoma knife-maker, said Levi and Clayton are coming along well with their knife-making art.
“It’s always nice to see young people taking this up,” Miller said.
Don’t expect to shave the hair off your forearm with one of their deerbone knives. They’re not as sharp as steel.
News, Pages 1 on 09/11/2013