My Athame. It has a long history.

I bought my Athame 8-9 years ago. It was a used knife from an army surplus shop. It was ugly and looked like a hunting knife, but it had a good energy and I could see the potential for it to become something beautiful, so I handed over my $40 and brought it home.

I used it for a couple of years before I was ready to start looking for someone to bring out its beauty. My plan was to just add a pommel and put a new, nice handle on it, but a friend of mine put me in touch with John, who had been making knives for years. We met, I brought my knife, and we spent 2 hours brainstorming. He took my knife with him along with the promise that it would be done within 6 weeks.

A year and many excuses later, I went and picked up my Athame from him. It was still unfinished. He told me I didn't have to pay him, but I did pay him some, but not everything, since the work that he DID complete was beautiful.

Here's my Athame as it is now...


Assembled.


Parts.


Closeup of filework on tang.

And so it has been, for more than 5 years. He started work on it shortly after I married, and my husband and I celebrated our 6th anniversary last August. I've toyed with the idea of buying a $50 Athame from a store, but it wouldn't be MINE. My knife will be one of a kind. My husband offered to try to do it for me, but he doesn't have the tools or the skill since he's really never done any woodwork, and I'd really like to have my Athame back. I feel like I'm missing a limb without it.

This past spring, I thought about asking a wood artist I buy things from to do the work for me, but he's VERY Christian and while I am not one to hide my spirituality, I wasn't sure that our working relationship would suffer from the knowledge that one of his good customers is a Witch, so I decided not to approach him with the project.

I've decided that I want to have it finished by the end of this year. It has been in a box far too long, and I hear it calling me. I've contacted about a dozen wood artists in my area, and some of them don't do the kind of work I am after, but I think I've decided on one. He charges $45 an hour, and estimated that it would take 1-2 hours to complete, so I think that's pretty reasonable. He also impressed me by saying he could have it finished before Samhain. Not Halloween. Not "the end of the month". He actually said Samhain. He also told me that if I'm not 100% happy with it, he'll redo it over and over again until I am. The only problem is getting it to him. He works in my city, but our transit system leaves a LOT to be desired, so I'll have to convince my husband that he needs to take me out there to see him. That will be the fun part, since he hates playing chauffeur.

Oh well, such is life. I have a really good feeling about this guy, and if he does a good job, I'll get him to make me a new box for my Tarot cards next year.