Overview
This Gut Hook by George Herron was made with a friend of his that he hunted with, Dave Petzal. It has a satin finished blade made from F-5 Steel, .095" blade stock and .444" blade depth, hidden tang construction with an osage orange wood grip. Excellent condition. Comes with a letter of Provenance from Dave Petzal.
The story:
"I hunted deer in South Carolina with George Herron from 1983 to 1993, and after the hunt was over i had the chance to visit with him and Miss Barbara for a day or two. One year, he decided that he would use the time to show me how to make a knife. George taught perhaps a dozen people over the years, and all of them, such as Wayne Hendrix and Bill Defreest, had professional-level talent.
I told George I had no skill at all with my hands, and it would be a shame to let me butcher a piece of ATS-34, so we looked around the shop and found a scrap of F-5 steel and a piece of osage orange for the handle.
We decided that a gut hook would be simpler than a knife blade, so i set to work, and after a half-hour George saw that i was indeed hopeless, and jumped in to save the project. This is the result. He didn't sign it, isince it was only half his work. But it is nonetheless a genuine Herron Gut Hook."