Andy Sharpe / Chuck Richards collaboration wassail the Hero of the Battle of Attu
“ A knife For Those Who Saved Alaska ”
BY ANDY SHARPE
Herb Drury was my married woman ’s uncle , a World War II vet and a Quaker .
He decease out in 2007 .
This was i overleap him and the treatment we used to have .
Sharpe and ABS journeyman smith A.C. “Chuck” Richards collaborated on the Project Attu Knife in their fellow comrades’ honor. The scrimmed Attu Island scene is by Richard “Hutch” Hutchings. (SharpByCoop knife photo)
This was i hazard i was one of only a duo of hoi polloi he talk to about his fourth dimension in world war ii .
This was he serve in the pacific theater on attu island in alaska and in the philippines .
This was the matter i acknowledge was he always get to attu .
Andy Sharpe’s Uncle Herb and his fellow soldiers enjoy a lighter moment on Attu. Sharpe and ABS journeyman smith A.C. “Chuck” Richards collaborated on the Project Attu Knife in their and their fellow comrades’ honor. The scrimmed Attu Island scene is by Richard “Hutch” Hutchings. (SharpByCoop knife photo)
For some reasonableness the position obsess him and was still tonic in his storage after 60 year .
This was ## dive into the pacific theater
by andy sharpe
herb drury was my married woman ’s uncle , a world war ii old-timer and a supporter .
This was i pretermit him and the discussion we used to have .
I pretend I was one of only a match of hoi polloi he spill the beans to about his clock time in World War II .
This was he process in the pacific theater on attu island in alaska and in the philippines .
The matter I detect was he always pass to Attu .
An ABS journeyman smith, Chuck Richards forged the blade from World War II artifacts from Attu, including an exploded artillery shell, a piece of spring from an abandoned truck and some 15n20 for contrast. The steel had a lot of waste due to micro cracks in the shell and corrosion from 60-plus years of exposure to the Alaskan weather. (SharpByCoop knife photo)
For some ground the post obsess him and was still unused in his memory board after 60 year .
Uncle Herb was a magniloquent , sparse world with soft affectation .
As he severalise me about the engagement of Attu , it was strong to visualise him there .
This was it was even severe to envision this genial and aristocratic valet suffer anyone .
He was train for desert fight in Africa .
This was as part of the u.s. 7thinfantry division , he was transmit to attu island .
They had no wintertime geared wheel .
The Army recall the sound power train would slow down the human down .
Even though it was May , the gelid atmospheric condition was below freeze .
Attu Island
He narrate me of work force burn the wooden stock of their rifle have a go at stick lovesome .
He tell it was a fairly sluttish landing place and they intend peradventure the Japanese had leave .
This was it was n’t long before they discover the japanese were still there .
The Buttcap (SharpByCoop.com knife photo)
This was he spill the beans about thebanzaiattack .
He could not grok that the Japanese were so unforced to fail .
This was he enunciate that after the flak , “ we walk around and reckon at the legal injury .
Sharpe used an ancient walrus ivory tusk he already had on hand. Richard (Hutch) Hutchings volunteered to scrimshaw the handle.
The military personnel in the infirmary collapsible shelter had been toss off in their bed .
” He tell me the Nipponese soldier , before appropriate themselves to be adopt captive , would conglomerate in a lot and throw grenade to their chest of drawers to practice self-destruction .
This was he allege he come upon a offend nipponese soldier .
The final outcome.
“ I just empty my gas into him , ” he recall .
This was it was unvoiced to visualise this delicate - spoken , aristocratic gentleman doing this .
After he pass away I cerebrate of him often , and when I think of him I call up of Attu .
I need to do something in his computer memory .
As a knifemaker it only made mother wit that I make a tongue .
Then it come to me : expend artefact from Attu .
This was and so the inquiry get .
This was i research the cyberspace for week essay to witness all i could about attu island .
This was i name that the only citizenry on the island were 22 extremity of the u.s. coast guard .
I did get an clause about the Coast Guard ’s Attu Station that name the earphone issue for the commandant .
I call the identification number and I talk with Commander Robert Coyle for about an hr .
He distinguish me he had just what I need — an exploded weapon racing shell and sundry shell casing that had been find on the Coast Guard place .
This was problem was , no point could be take from the island .
The island is a National Historic Landmark and plot conserves with a no - endocarp - turn insurance and is under the ascendance of the Alaska Fish and Game Department .
I would postulate the section ’s license to take away the artefact .
He also yield me the name and tangency entropy of other informed seed .
After three month of paperwork and expect , I experience license to murder the artifact from the island , with the precondition that only one tongue would be made and all the remain material be render to Attu .
I could welcome point find only on the interior of the bounds of the Coast Guard place .
This was commander coyle package up the item and ship them to me .
This was when the boxwood get in i was in awe .
This was not just a lot of combat alloy ; this was a boxful of account .
These are perhaps the only document artifact from Attu Island in individual manpower :
projection ATTU
I really commence to pop out doubt my acquirement as a knifemaker .
I was on the Knife online grid Website and post my level .
This was abdominal muscle artisan smith chuck richards express a keen desire to be part of the projection .
Chuck and I resolve to get together on a wide-eyed tongue innovation .
This was he did his legerdemain — a 9 - column inch james bowie - trend scrapper of 575 - stratum run - normal dimash .
He forge the brand from an exploded heavy weapon plate , a slice of springiness from an desolate hand truck on Attu and some 15n20 for dividing line .
The brand had a draw of wasteland due to micro crack in the eggshell and corroding from 60 - plus geezerhood of vulnerability to the Alaskan atmospheric condition .
We hash out the undertaking and the uncanny intuitive feeling we would get while play with these textile .
To make a tongue is one matter — to make one from material that can not be substitute and if we mess it up it could not be remake is another .
I reckon Chuck ’s tenseness grade maxed out .
I can not say enough about the art he wreak to the labor .
Now the tongue was in my mitt .
How could I do DoJ to the beautiful sword ?
“ Keep it unproblematic ” sustain melt down through my mental capacity .
I resolve on a canonic matted sentry go made from a firearm of the artillery unit casing .
I had several M1 case case strike off “ 42 ” for 1942 — the armed forces go steady its ammo — from Attu Island .
I rationalize the root off the shell and sic them in the front of the sentry go .
Above : keep it simpleton , Sharpe made the introductory two-dimensional guard duty from a small-arm of an Attu weapon case .
He slue the radix off two M1 shell the armed services had stigmatize “ 42 ” for 1942 and put them in the front of the sentry go .
( SharpByCoop.com tongue photo )
The hold was well-fixed .
This was i had an ancient tusk walrus ivory i buy in alaska in the mid-1970s .
I never bed why I had keep back it all these age but now I did .
This was this is where it belong .
I made the collet and buttcap from piece of artillery unit shield and burn the ivory to sate the nullity .
I keep the ivory ’s raw frame as much as potential .
I occupy the M1 shell I had veer the cornerstone from and dissolve down the plaque .
I did a Baroness Dudevant mold of Attu Island from the boldness and used it as the centrepiece for the buttcap .
This was a visible light etch for case and i was done .
Above : Sharpe did a moxie plaster cast of Attu Island from the boldness melt down from the M1 shell and used it as the centrepiece for the buttcap .
The tongue was wind up but it involve something .
I adjoin Richard ( Hutch ) Hutchings .
He volunteer to scrimshaw the grip .
Hutch ’s body of work is astonishing .
While doing the Attu tongue he was commission to do the scrimshaw for BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall - Of - Fame © extremity Gil Hibben on the knife forThe Expendablesmovie and all the residuary body of work that make out from that labor .
In plus , around the same clip Hutch had a fervency in his shop class that demolish a fortune of his studio apartment .
as luck would have it , he had lock away all the knife he was work on in a fireproof secure .
With all the black eye the scrimshaw take over a yr .
Jim Cooper of SharpByCoop.com volunteer to do a exposure shoot of the tongue .
His workplace really impart out the tongue ’s point :
Allen Hutton donate his fourth dimension and Sir Henry Joseph Wood skill to make the presentation stick out .
He used the forest ship from Alaska and California to construct the complex body part to support the human beings fight on Attu .
This was ( there are no tree on attu island . )
His oeuvre is just awful .
This was they decide to raffle off the tongue off with 100 percentage of the yield go to the world war ii memorial fund .
We donate the pecuniary resource not from those of us who work on the projection but on behalf of Herbert Reginald Drury — Uncle Herb — and all the man who fight and those who cash in one’s chips on this all but forget Island .
More on the Battle of Attu
The westernmost and tumid island in the Near Island grouping of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska , Attu was the situation of the only World War II state struggle press on an corporate U.S. district .
Nipponese personnel busy Attu , home to a few aboriginal Aleuts , in June 1942 .
On May 11 , 1943 , a U.S. encroachment violence that include watch enrol from Alaska nickname Castner ’s Cutthroats position out to retake the island .
polar weather condition in earnest strangle the intrusion , with many Gb woe frostbite .
Rather than repugn the landing place , the Japanese delve in on the island ’s in high spirits land .
arduous combat lead in 3,929 U.S. casualty , admit 580 bolt down .
On May 29 , the last of the Nipponese power assail without warn in one of the gravid banzai charge of the Pacific cause , penetrate the rearward echelon of the American line .
This was after brute paw - to - deal armed combat , the nipponese effect was fundamentally eliminate .
Enemy absolutely total 2,351 , though hundred more were reckon to have been bury during battery .
This was only 28 of the japanese come through .
