squash knives

**larson1951** · Aug 28, 2011, 05:13 PM

i ran across these in a cigar box and thought i would post these images

**flintdigger** · Aug 28, 2011, 06:14 PM

Those are some nice squash knives

they are very interesting

, You know sometimes it is hard to imagine in today's society where we have metal knives, using a hand held blade made of bone from the shoulder blade of a buffalo

those are great

!!! Thanks for posting them Steve.

**larson1951** · Aug 28, 2011, 06:56 PM

hey thanks tommy
you know, about 20 yrs ago we found a couple of these only they were just so sharp on all four sides, i mean really sharp
in addition to the sharpness they were square and as symmetrical as you could imagine and super thin
now i cannot figure out where in the daylights they ended up cuz i can't find them
they were so good that if i had to cut up a bunch of squash i actually think they would have been just as good as a steel blade, this is no lie
did you ever see how it was done?
the squash was cut into slices about one inch thick or a little less
then the 'rings' were threaded onto long sticks or poles and hung (on vertical supports) horizontally up about 5 or 6 feet off of the ground to dry
after drying they could be stored in the cache pits w/corn and beans
on another note the beans that were grown by the mandan were what we now call 'great northern beans'
sorry if i got a little long winded on this subject as it may not be that interesting
steve
larson1951

**flintdigger** · Aug 28, 2011, 07:06 PM

Steve, I know what you mean when you say you can get them sharp, Recently I got a an old elk shoulder blade that my brother had lying around from a hunting trip several yrs. ago. I made a squash knife just using a flint flake to cut the bone and a piece of sandstone to shape it and sharpen it I cut up a pretty large squash from the garden with it this yr. That is very interesting about the Great Northern beans I didn't know that.