Red's Knife 1

This is one of three pictures of this project. This is a prop for Lady Red Riding Hood, my Halloween 2011 costume for sale on Etsy: [link]

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No matter whether she was hunting with bow or spear, or going otherwise empty-handed into the depths of the Wilderness, Red never failed to bring her knife with her. The horn blade was securely fastened into the jawbone of a wolf, and the paw of that same wolf served as the knife's sheath.

It had been no ordinary wolf, but the pup that she had saved at her first hunt, grown into a mature wolf bitch--much like herself. For years the two of them ran in the woods together, from gangling young things all legs and spirit, to healthy grown members of their pack.

Only two winters ago, though sometimes it felt forever, and sometimes just a caught breath away--Red hated to think of it, but there came a day when her friend no longer paced at her side. To this day the memories were still blurry, but she remembered the moment that the injured boar they happened upon while wandering rose up from among the snowdrifts. There was an enraged squeal, a cry of pain cut off suddenly, and the boar was gone, leaving her wolf-friend mortally wounded.

Rather than watching the dying animal fade away slowly and painfully, she had taken her hunting knife and quickly ended the suffering. Later, once she had given herself time to mourn, she rehilted the blade in the wolf's jaw to give it a stronger bite, and wrapped it in one of the paws that had carried the wolf over so many miles for so many years.

Of course, both Life and Death were the domains of the Lady and Lord of the Wilderness, and even in her grief at the loss of her wolven friend, she thought to add a small reminder of the divine presence and the sacred cycles of this world to these remains. The Stag and the Moon, white for birth, red for blooding, black for death--these were a reminder of the greater story she herself, and her wolf, and all other beings were a part of.

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This is the first time I've made a jawbone knife; usually I use a piece of antler, or a leg bone. I'm really pleased with this, though, and I especially love the shape of it! It has a nice feel in my hand even with the teeth that remain; it's a pity that blade wouldn't actually hold an edge. Still, it would make a lovely ritual knife and display piece.

The sheath is more black leather left over from the rest of the project, and a wolf legskin; I had to look extra hard to find one that had black claws, since so many have pale ones. The ceramic button is from a local artisan, and the glass crow beads are on more scrap leather.

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9 1/2" wolf jaw bone and water buffalo horn knife with 11" long wolf paw and leather sheath with ceramic and glass adornments.