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Many muzzleloading enthusiasts are making their own tomahawks-Bowieknives, too-but none that we have ever run across can match the artistic, jewel-like brass tomahawks handcrafted by RW Wilson of Weirton, West Virginia.
RW is an enthusiastic, avid muzzleloader, has been shooting for years but the national reputation he has earned for himself is the result of his exceptional artistry as a crafter of both knives and tomahawks. As a hawk maker, and especially in his specialized field of ceremonial tomahawks, he appears to be in a class all by himself. For these are not just tomahawks of the throwing variety,
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but are $200 to $300 works of art which no charcoal-burner in hisright mind would ever throw, but would display as a "hanger" on a wall as carefully and proudly as he would an original Roman Nose Kentucky flintlock rifle!
This genial young man, whose colorful stove-pipe top hat with its rattlesnake band has made him a familiar figure in ML circles, started out as a steel maker by trade and a blacksmith's helper. This gave him much of the knowledge and expertise which is obvious in the work he handcrafts today. In his present job with Weirton Steel, he makes special tool steels needed in the plant, but all of his free time is devoted to making those exceptionally fine knives and hawks. Readers of THE MUZZLELOADER will recall that RW's celebrated hat, as well as one of his famous hawks and other ML artifacts were featured on the front cover of our third issue--summer of 1974.
It all started in 1968 when RW examined a knife that took his fancy. But it Cost $30, and RW with his steel work background decided to make one for himself as good or better. This he did, but when someone saw it and offered him $35 for it, RW was on his way as a knifemaker.
He made more and sold them as fast as they were finished, and his reputation spread, especially after he started to make those fabulous tomahawks and to display his products at gun shows.
It was at one of these gun shows that an agent for Warner Brothers Studios asked RW if he'd make some tomahawks for use in the scheduled production of the survival film "Jeremiah Johnson," starring Robert Redford in the title role. The result was that RW made all of the 16 tomahawks used in that epic movie, including the one thrown by an "Indian" which almost killed the hero in a famous combat scene.
Part of the deal was that RW was to have the hawks returned to him...
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