 I've always wanted to make a "fluted" handled knife, ever since I saw my first one as a boy in the hands of the Queen's main guard on a school trip to England.
I could imagine the feel of that twist in my hand and sure enough, when I made my own, it was everything I imaged!
However I needed to find the right materials, and inspiration for such a knife. That came to me, ironically, when I got lost going to the Renaissance fair in San Bernardino. It was going to be my first visit
(but not my last, since a few years later when I actually got to participate, I found my inspiration for "The Wench" by looking between the massive cleavage of a fine well-endowed young woman "water carrier").
I had been commissioned to make a special knife for the "Queen" (at the faire, the Queen is never out of character and is treated by her subjects as if she is the real thing… and she even has the power to vanish a misbehaving cotter, though not with an "off with their head"!), and was really excited about getting there to give it to her in the grand ceremony.
I took way too many wrong turns on the freeway, and was hit by the more-than-awful rush hour traffic (explain to me why they call it "rush"?!), and all the time was worried that I would be late. I actually could see myself being sent to the dungeon by an irate Queen who was "knife-less" at her ceremony!
To make matters worse, when the traffic did ease up the closer I got to the countryside where the faire was being held, I saw a family on the side of the highway. Their truck had broken down, and they were hauling a horse trailer… with a very upset mare and her filly inside. Without giving it a second thought, I pulled over and using my own powerful jack, was able to hold up the trailer while we fixed the tire, and got them back on the road. When I finally got to the faire, I knew the ceremony would be over, and that "heads would roll", but somehow the look on that family's face when I came running to their aid was worth whatever fate was in store for me.
Boy was I surprised! When I got to the arena, there were police and an ambulance. Seems that the grandstand had collapsed just at the time we were supposed to be up there giving the Queen her knife. But because I was late, they had cancelled that part of the show. The stand collapsed without anyone on it, and only a few people got some cuts and bruises getting out of the way.
If I had been on time, and had not stopped to help that family, God knows what would have been in store! So you talk about a twist of fate!
It was from that incident that I created my own "Twist of Fate". It's in the style of the old Queen's Guard daggers, and uses as much "historical" material as I could find.
Just think what fate it will twist in your own hands!.”
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