Hi Warren,
Yes... I cleaned it up and sharpened it...I was 14 yrs old !!! I had no idea it had some value to it... At the time the value to me was I had a big honkin' knife that you could shave with... My father worked for a big meat packing company... Deer hunting camp I was trained by butchers to sharpen knives... As I got older, I sharpened everyone's knives at camp...
As far as how it got there... years later we narrowed it down to a kid in the neighborhood that was always in trouble and spent a lot of time in juvy... ( probably in prison now )... We figure he took or stole it from his father and lost it or hid it where I found it...The problem was asking him, we didn't know what jail he was in...The odd thing is everyone knew I found a big knife, if his father was missing one, I would think it would have made it back to my father and would have been returned...
Dave,
And at the end of the day you used it as it was intended. I think it has all the provenance it needs. For you, are you ok with that? For us less fortunate to have such an old relic with history and cool stories, well wish I had one to share. Consider yourself fortunate.
Just one question...
What Randall of today would ya?