"History You Can Hold" - SENTINEL KNIFE - Independence Hall

"History You Can Hold" - SENTINEL KNIFE - Independence Hall

History Salvaged has partnered with Palmetto Blades to create a unique offering of custom handcrafted knives featuring an assortment of Historic Witness Wood®. Complementing the History Salvaged commitment to “Keep History Alive”, the partnership expands our product line by offering what Palmetto describes as “History You Can Hold”.

Each custom knife in this collection will begin with Palmetto’s one-of-a-kind custom Damascus blade, The Sentinel, which measures 6” overall length with a 2” saber ground edge. The handle construction will offer an option of an assortment of Historic Witness Wood® from History Salvaged to create the perfect, historic pocketknife. All knives are handmade and come with a custom, hand-tooled leather sheath made. 

Please Note: Current lead-time on a knife is 60-90 days upon placement of an order and prices vary based on the Rarity of the Historic Witness Wood®.

The Sentinel Knife

​Specifications:

• Overall Length: 6 Inches
• Blade Length:  2 Inches
• Blade Thickness: .1875 Inch
• Blade Steel: Palmetto Custom Damascus 
• Made in the USA

History Salvaged has acquired the ORIGINAL construction Witness Wood® from Independence Hall.  This Witness Wood® includes pieces of the beams that supported the floor when both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated and signed.  These Independence Hall Witness Wood® beams and railings had once felt the footsteps and touch of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, among others.

Provenance - Independence Hall

Completed in 1735 as the Pennsylvania State House, it took two years to build Independence Hall home of the 1^st Continental Congress and the Declaration of Independence and where the Constitution was debated and put to paper.

During the renovation of Independence Hall in 1897-98, 16 of the original beams holding up the floor on which the giants of the era debated the future of the 13 Colonies were replaced under the supervision of the project manager and superintendent of the Independence Hall, Samuel Reeves. Rather than discarding the beams, Reeves retained possession of the old timbers.

In 1912 Reeves sold the beams to John S. McQuade a builder and member of the Philadelphia City Council for the purposes of cutting them up and making “relics”, but McQuade stored the beams for 12 years and in 1924 sold them to two brothers, Walter and Clarence Deisroth owners of a paper box company in Philadelphia.

The Deisroth’s reduced some beams to 100,000+ slivers and sold them as souvenirs during the Sesquicentennial Exposition of 1926.

In 1956 the Deisroth’s company went into bankruptcy and at auction, Mr. Henry Gouse a retired sales engineer and the Mid-Atlantic Tennis Champion of the 1940s bought the wood at auction. Along with what was left of the timbers thousands of chips and 20 gallons of sawdust, the by-product of producing the 100,000+ slivers was included in the lot.

Grouse stored the beams in a barn on his property on the outskirts of Philadelphia where he made gavels out of some of the beams and presented them over the years to President Eisenhower, President Nixon, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, and other political leaders.  Grouse also donated 4 of the remaining beams to Independence Hall and the National Park Service (now the operator of Independence Hall) as confirmed in the National Park Service letter acknowledging “the gift”.

In 1975 Gouse was in his 80’s and his ex-wife “reluctantly” sold the remaining woodpile to an artist and attorney from whose estate the History Salvaged was able to acquire this Witness Wood®.

Mrs. Grouse only sold the Witness Wood® because of the high cost of living and her struggling economic situation, she simply could no longer afford to keep the timbers and sold the Witness Wood® with the understanding that it would not be desecrated.

The new owners subsequently cut up much of the wood again into slivers, producing thousands of history cards and memorabilia that were sold during the Bicentennial in 1976 all over the country and in many major department stores.

The remnant wood has remained drying out and deteriorating in storage since the 1970’s until the History Salvaged recent acquisition.

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• All Knives are handcrafted and made in America.

• Each is individually hand made and each varies in look and feel.

• All History Salvaged product is guaranteed authentic and made utilizing the wood describe and in conjunction with our partner clients.

• All History Salvaged products arrive in Eco-Friendly packaging.

• EacKnife comes with a custom handmade leather sheath and COA guaranteeing the Authenticity of the Witness Wood®.