Sporting Classics Digital

S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 9 3 Black and three examples of his work survive. One was in possession of a dying Mexican farmer who gave it to a Texas Ranger to settle a debt. The second is marked "Bowie #1" and the third, which is unmarked, was also made in the classic Bowie pattern. All are in museums today. Obviously, the Mexican knife was the likely blade Bowie carried at the Alamo." Many credit James Black with rediscovering the Damascus blade. But was the original Bowie knife Damascus steel? Supposedly forged from a meteorite, it certainly met the criteria, tough and pliant, "long enough to use as a sword, sharp enough to be used as a razor, wide enough to be used as a paddle, and heavy enough to be used as a hatchet," according to one historian. And Black was so secretive about his technique that he hung a leather curtain across his smithy door when he was at the forge. On his deathbed, he tried to share his secret with a friend, but alas, he could no longer remember and he took his recipe to the grave. But has J. R. Cook ever tried to make a knife from a meteorite? "Yes, but you never know what you will end up with, and the stuff costs around $150 an ounce. Ideally, you will get iron with a trace of nickel burned clean by friction of the air, but if the meteorite hit the ground hot, it would have picked up dirt and rock. You can work hours and hours just to have the thing crumble when you are done." When J. R. Cook got that grant to study under a master bladesmith, he studied under Jerry Fisk. Fisk began making knives in 1974 and became a journeyman smith through the American Bladesmith Society in 1987. Two years later he became the 17th Master Smith recognized by the Society. Fisk has received Beretta's Outstanding Award for Achievement in Handcrafted Cutlery, the Bill Moran Award for the American Bladesmith Society's 1990 Knife of the Year, the Arkansas Governor's Award and currently holds the title of National Living Treasure, the first knifemaker to receive this title. "And through it all," he laughs, "I wore clean underwear like my momma taught me to." Fisk remains proud of his humble beginnings. "I was one of five boys in the family. When it rained, the roof leaked. When it was time for a bath, I toted buckets of water into the kitchen for the tub. Until I was ten years old I thought my name was "boy, go get water." Fisk's daddy was a preacher, called by the Lord to help folks in need. When a blacksmith hit town down on his luck, Poppa helped him set up his shop. "The man built a board table and sold his knives by the side of the road." If that itinerant smith got Fisk's attention, a school field trip to James Black's shop in Old Washington captured it forever. Old Washington was founded in the 1820s and soon became a major stopping spot on the Southwest Trail, a pioneer trade route from St. Louis to the Mexican border. It was a rendezvous for Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett and Sam Houston on their way to Texas. Later, Old Washington, then simply Washington, served as the Confederate capitol of Arkansas. The business district was ravaged by two fires in the late 1800s and all but abandoned by 1900. In 1958 the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation set to preserving remaining buildings and recreating those that were lost. James Black's log smithy with charcoal forge and hand-operated bellows dates from that effort and has since become a shrine for traditional knifemakers. "There are 126 mastersmiths worldwide and roughly half were once students of mine," Fisk says. "I'd says that fully 99 percent of them work with Damascus steel, either full time or occasionally, but there ain't nothing glamorous about getting your shirt burnt off. The forge is around 3,000 degrees, R ight: Cook's personal Bowie knife features a blade of transition Damascus while his Swallow-tail Bowie (top) is decorated in a feather pattern of Damascus. The handles of both blades are walrus ivory.

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