This knife is an exact copy of the original of an Exhibition Bowie that was made in Sheffield England.  The original knife was exhibited at the Crystal Palace Exhibition, c. 1860.  After the Crystal Palace Exhibition it was kept in the company  office as a display and was never meant to be sold.  The best craftsmanship of the day went into this display knife.  After George Wostenholm & Sons went bankrupt, this knife eventually ended up at auction in the early 1990's.
I handled this knife for three days, took measurements off of it, and definitely got an intimate feel for this knife.  This is the biggest Bowie knife I have ever made.  The etching is exactly like the original (courtesy of Francine Etchings), in three panel depicting Mt Vernon with Martha and George standing in front of their mansion  in the center panel.   On the right side, there's a Native American roping a horse.  And on the left side there's a Native American hunting a buffalo.  There probably weren't any buffalo in Virginia, but they must not have known that in Sheffield England.
The handle is Mother-of-Pearl and it took me 15 years to find a piece of Pearl that was big enough to create this knife.  Truly a one-of-a-kind knife - I can never reproduce this knife again as there is not Pearl big enough for the handle.   The handle also boasts a bust of Washington, carved in Mother-of-Pearl, which was carved by Buster Warenski.  The pommel and guard was carved by Mark Degraffenried and cast in sterling silver.
This knife is available through my website at; Rappcustomknives.com.
Enjoy!

This is a reproduction of one of the first Bowie knives that was ever made.  The Searles Bowie.  Circa 1830's.  Jim Bowie, and his brother Rezin, lived about halfway in between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and Daniel Searles lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Searles heard about the Mississippi sand-bar fight that Jim was in.  The guns had mis-fired and Jim had to resort to using his knives that he had with him that night.  Jim killed all the opponents and knowledge of the Bowie knife that Jim had used spread from there.
Handle is African Blackwood with fine silver pins.
This knife is available through my website at: Rappcustomknives.com.

Chute Knife - Mother-of-Pearl with scrimshaw

A new version of a Chute Knife.  It's very rare that a knife ever has scrimshaw on Pearl.  The scrimshaw image is of a Cheetah on one side chasing her prey of an antelope on the other side.  Mother-of-Pearl is Nature's neon sign with the way that light dances off the Pearl.  The idea of a Chute Knife is for parachute jumping and a chute knife in a leather sheath is at risk for cutting through the webbing or stitching of the leather sheath.  Not so with a metal sheath like this one.  This knife stays put in the metal sheath until you take it out.  I line the sheaths of my knives with velvet, so the way the fibers lay makes it so that when you slide a knife into one my sheaths, the fiber-nap allows the blade to slide into the sheath very easily, but on the flip-side, the way the fibers lay they make it more difficult to pull the blade out of the sheath.  When you start to pull the the knife out of the sheath, the hairs of the velvet have to reverse the direction that they are in, and this gives the blade that initial resistance, and then the blade comes out more smoothly.  The knives still come out of my sheaths very smoothly, but they will never just simply fall out because of the way that velvet nap lays.
The sheath is made from the nontarnishable Monel.  If you don't know anything about Monel, it has almost a silvery-luster to it.  It looks more like silver than stainless steel.  And that's exactly why I use it.  Scrimsahw by Raluca Markow.  Engraving by Paul Markow.
This knife is available through my website at; Rappcustomknives.com.
Enjoy!