The little yellow knife, a gift from Hill and Schulz

      This is a short break from longbow stuff to expound about an item I was shown by John Schulz and I like it's connection to Howard Hill.  It fits with the overall simplicity in thinking about all things Hill style and the approach to hunting in the Hill style.

      Hill is documented in several publications and by eyewitnesses that he used a simple 3 bladed birdseye style pocket knife for hunting and taking care of his game.  Photos show in one article that he had the sheepsfoot blade out and being sharpened for skinning a buck deer that Bob Swinehart had shot.  Hill was quoted as saying that this knife was all he used for the task, there was no need for any larger knife.

       He also stated in another article that he carried this knife on hunts, and besides using it for game care, would use it for helping get errant broadhead-tipped arrows from trees. I'd guess it was his regular camp chore knife as well.  It seems that his generation was very adept at using minimalistic gear for taking care of themselves in daily life or the woods.  Money was tight as they grew up and they made do with less. However, it's this overall approach to life, and hunting, that I find refreshing in today's age of over-indulgence, and over-thinking what we really need to take to the woods.  

     When I was sitting at lunch with Schulz, he took a simple pocket knife from his pocket to cut up our victuals and I realized I had never seen this kind of Swiss Army knife before.  A simple, single-bladed affair, with a prominent sheepsfoot blade,  colored yellow and looking similar to the old birdseye stockman that Hill carried.  I wondered then, and still do, if John used that knife in a simple remembrance of his mentor Hill.  It met his daily knife needs, and that was enough.  Intrigued, I sought to find out about this knife, it's designed use and such. What I found out destined me to carry one in my pocket as my all purpose everyday carry pocket knife.  It's just too handy not to carry it daily.

    The Victorinox Swiss Army Floral knife.  Simplicity in form and function.  A steel that sharpens easily, stays sharp through daily tasks, cuts like crazy, and won't break the bank if it's lost or damaged.  It was designed, so you read on the various websites, for gardening, for floral work, for grafting trees.  The single bevel edge is designed to slice cut into a plant or tree's tender layers without damaging vital water-carrying cells.  But it works well for so much more.  Commercial fishermen have found out that it is a superb net knife, it's plastic type handle covering a stainless blade and aluminum liners to be a great asset in salty conditions.  Leatherworkers use it for making the various cuts through tough leather hides. Tree grafters find the durable blade steel just right for making hundreds of fine cuts in tough bark layers before needing any sharpening.  I find it super useful in my daily glass shop work cutting neoprene blocking, scoring wood and plastic shims, cutting sheetrock, cutting vinyl and cardboard and nylon rope.  I use it at my leatherworking bench cutting out quivers from 1/8" thick leather.  This little gem holds a wicked edge, and when it gets dull, sharpens up by some quick strops to razor edge again.  Like Hill, I carry a small sharpening stone with me everywhere.  In my truck, my quiver, my pack, at home.  Rather than carrying a knife with steel that can punch through car doors, and which takes sending the knife back to the manufacturer to sharpen...I prefer a steel I can put an edge back on in a minute or less.  My knife is a cutting tool, not a pry bar, or dirt and rock digger.  And for all these things, the little knife has earned a place in my daily life.

      But where this Floral knife is my connection to Hill and Schulz is in the game fields.  Pulling out the sheepsfoot blade and feeling that firm opening snap and getting to work on an animal is for me, another connection to their simplistic hunting style.  I have field dressed small game and fish, and skinned and quartered, and boned out deer without needing to resharpen the blade.   Last fall I completely skinned and quartered my moose, and moose hide is slightly thicker than a deer hide, ha ha.  I also cut through the hip joints to separate the hind quarters, took off the head by cutting through a vertebrae, and ran the knife blade along the spine in getting off the backstraps.  When I was done and the quarters were in the game bags,  I could still shave hair off my arm and I never retouched the blade during the entire process.  This is to me what a fine cutting tool should do.  I've got some great custom knives and a couple of Helle blades which I really like, but they don't do any better job than the simple Swiss Army Floral knife for what I need a knife for.

    The most common is the single bladed version, but you can also find budding and pruning varieties with multiple blades in case you like the idea of a backup blade.  I've modified a few for such purposes but rarely need the second blade.  I also do put a small bevel on the off edge, which essentially takes away the single bevel idea as I don't need to worry about crushing plant stems and the double bevel is even more durable and better for whittling and carving or sharpening my carpenter pencils at work.

        I realize that most outdoorsmen will have their favorite style and brand of knife, as it should be.  I also realize that a lot of guys and gals in today's world don't know how to sharpen, or keep a knife sharp during and after use.  A knife like this, or any other kind of single bladed knife, is a good way to start that learning process.  I know there's the venerable Case Sodbuster, the Buck 110 and the Opinel #8 that are extremely popular single blade folding knives with outdoorsy folks and hunters.  I'd like to see this great Floral knife get some recognition because it too can hold it's own with those other brands, and a great side benefit is the cost.  I don't know how the Swiss do it, but their cutlery is known world wide by cooks and chefs,  taxidermists and guides for being great cutting tools.  Oh yeah...if you're stuck on the idea that the Swiss Army knife is a cheap multitool knife, with thin blades and lots of gadgets...sure you can buy those kind.  But this little knife, the Floral knife, has steel as thick as the Sodbuster, thicker than the Opinel or the Case and Schrade type stockmen folders, is stainless for easy cleaning (throw it in the dishwasher to clean out the field dressing gunk) and it is light enough to just about disappear in the pocket for easy carrying.

       Try one sometime.  Maybe you too will feel a little connection to Schulz, and Hill and maybe, like it did with me, it will help you start looking at all kinds of ways you can simplify your life in ways akin to shooting a longbow in the Hill style.

      Shoot Straight.