I realized that I didn't have any duplicate RS3333's in my collection so step one was to acquire reasonable specimens for the project. I didn't want beaters but I also didn't want NOS as I believed that the Scouts that would have been awarded these knives would have used them. The acquisition process took a few months but eventually I had the specimens that were needed for the project.
Next came producing the Acorn Heroism shields. I first contacted Ken Griffey at Bear & Sons to see if he had any leftover blanks from the 2009 Remington RS3333 Replica project and he said he couldn’t help me out. I then found Buckeye Engraving in Knife Magazine who worked with me tirelessly to design, blueprint and develop 2 hardened steel stamps that with the help of 20 tons of hydraulic pressure would create the mark and pile side shields in 0.032” 11% nickel silver plate. They kindly gave me enough sample shields for the prototype and the 3 finished knives.
In November 2015, a friend of mine in Toronto got involved in the project and volunteered to create a prototype and share his feedback before the build of the 3 would commence. By day he’s a Senior Vice President at the Bank of Montreal and by night a world class Remington collector and very good with his hands in the workshop. We learned a lot from building a prototype that went into building the 3 finished knives and he now is the proud owner of the prototype.
In February 2016, our own Bob P (Elvis) was commissioned to build the 3 finished knives. Bob and I spent a few months chatting about the project, communicating information gained from building the prototypes and creating a project plan to build the authentic recreations. Due to some health setbacks, Bob felt it was best to find another artisan to handle the detail work and around June of last year we got Dale V. (Orvet) involved in the project (thankfully since then Bob's health has improved significantly). The plan was for Bob to handle what he could (disassembly, clean, polish and reassemble) and for Dale to install the mark and pile side shields. Around July of last year Bob completed his fine work and the knives were shipped to Dale.
One might ask, why did it take 9 months to finish the project from this point. The simple answer is that with 85+ year old original bone, you take your time and the results are incredible (at least I think so). I told Dale that I had no specific timeline to get them finished but when the original showed up in September of last year, I kind of set my sights on unveiling all 4 knives at the 2017 OKCA show (but that didn’t work out for me this year). Dale had completed 2 of the 3 before the OKCA show and wrapped up the third this past weekend, almost 2 full years to the day.
I have since built a shadow box for the original knife which will now be unveiled at the 2017 BSA National Jamboree at The Summit in West Virginia and the 3 Authentic Recreation knives will be there too. It’s been quite a journey with mostly up and only a few downs but in the end, I would do it all over again if given the chance. Upon inspecting the knives after they arrived today I found a small discrete “B.P.” engraved on the brass liners and I got choked-up. While we here know it’s our own Elvis who put it there, it made me think of Baden Powell and how his legacy to youth has been paid forward in a small way. I’m very blessed tonight but will sleep like a baby knowing the friends I have made through this project.
So that's the rest of the story........or is it? Stay tuned, there might be more!
