John Salley "Walker Combat" (He's dead. From Ohio)

Fat Man and Little Boy. Dale Howe Skinners. Boy's on the right, mine on the left:

Hi,

I Inherited a Ruana Bonner Montana about 8 years ago. I'm a whitetail hunter in VA and have used this knife quite a bit but it's a bit robust for my purpose. So I googled this knife and had no idea of it's value and heritage. Shame on me for using it... I believe my father purchased it for a blackpowder ram hunt out west sometime in the late '60s to '70s (a guess at best on the timeframe). I thought I would share some pics of it here with the true knife aficionados.

I would be interested in any comments regarding it. It appears to be very much like the 20B with a few differences. Most notably to me is the thumbnail groove on each side of the blade. The sheath and markings on the blade to not have any notable marking to help define the time period it was made but I believe it was made by Rudy Ruana as it dates before he quit making knives in '83.

Eric

Very cool Eric.

Here is another older Ruana(M series) skinner I picked up from a guy in Montana:

A.G. Russell San Mai drop point in elk stag/VG-10:

Very nice, I like it!

3 from David Winston

Rick Menefee

Badley pattern

Firesteel from 2MuchGun

Wayne Jarrett

Gene Ingram

The last one that I made

I picked up this 'Ron Goulas' blade about five years ago; as my buddy in Louisiana is just crazy about this makers skinning knives; maybe I'll use it this season; if given the opportunity