Reese Weiland Wasp with Faustina Mead Scrimshaw
There is a face stippled into the black buffalo horn on the show side of this knife. Faustina Mead put it there one dot at a time. She died in 2011, so the number of knives carrying her work stopped increasing fifteen years ago.
Reese Weiland made this Wasp in 1989. He had joined the Knifemakers’ Guild the year before, and 1989 was also the year he built his first folding knife. Therefore this piece sits at the very start of his folder work.
The knife measures 8.625 inches open on a four inch blade. It arrives preowned in excellent condition, and it still carries its original maker’s pouch. Browse more collector folding knives currently in stock.
Reese Weiland, Tampa, Florida
Weiland’s account of his own start is specific. When he was twelve, an uncle who worked as an amateur archaeologist made knives out of saw blades. That Christmas the uncle gave him a book on knifemaking. Reese then built a sword out of scrap metal and gave it back to him.
He joined the Knifemakers’ Guild in 1988 and made his first folding knife in 1989. This Wasp comes from that same year. Today Weiland sits among the makers collectors call the godfathers of the automatic knife, and he has collaborated with Microtech. However, none of that had happened yet when this knife left his bench.
Rather than move to automated production, Weiland built his reputation on manual mills and hand-cranked machinery, holding tight tolerances by hand. The blade carries his round stamp: REESE WEILAND above his script RW initials, TAMPA, FL below. See more from this maker on the Reese Weiland Custom Knives brand page.
Faustina Mead, and Why This Scrimshaw Is Hard
Mead’s client list reads as a roll call of the American custom knife world. She scrimshawed for Jimmy Lile, Lowell Bray, Gail Lunn and Anthony Marfione of Microtech. She worked from Inverness, Florida, and the Knifemakers’ Guild carried her on its roster of scrimshanders.
She died on 8 April 2011, which fixed her body of work permanently. For another piece from the Marfione side of that lineage, see the 1996 Microtech Chameleon.
How Scrimshaw Is Made
Scrimshaw means cutting an image into a hard surface and then working pigment into the cuts, so the picture appears as contrast. Whalers developed it on teeth and bone during voyages that ran for years. Because their supplies were limited, the tools were sail needles and lamp black.
Modern scrimshanders work by stippling. The artist places individual dots with a fine needle or graver, and tone comes from how densely those dots sit together. A shadow is dots crowded close. By contrast, a highlight is dots spread apart or absent. Dark passages can run thousands of dots per square inch. The effect is a photographic halftone cut by hand.
Why Black Horn Is Harder Than Ivory
Black buffalo horn inverts the whole process. On pale ivory the artist builds an image in dark pigment against a light ground, much as a pencil works. On horn this dark, however, every mark becomes a highlight. The artist therefore builds the picture out of light instead of shadow, which means holding the finished image in mind and placing the brightest points first.
The artist cannot undo a single mark. A dot in the wrong place stays permanent, and she can only correct it by darkening everything around it, which then shifts the tonal balance of the whole panel.
Even so, Mead worked a face this way — eyes, the plane of a cheekbone, the strands in a fur wrap — across a curved scale roughly three inches long. Her signature sits at the upper edge. For more on evaluating work like this, read our guide on how to choose a custom knife.
Blade, Frame, and Action
The blade is 154CM in a satin finish, ground to a hawkbill profile that runs four inches with 3.75 inches of cutting edge. Because the curve pulls material into the cut rather than pushing against it, the geometry favours draw cuts. Weiland has returned to sickle and hawkbill shapes throughout his career.
Bolsters and liners are titanium, anodized to a deep blue that reads almost slate in shade and brighter under direct light. A stainless back strap runs the spine between the horn scales. A checkered stainless thumb stud sits on the show side, and the blade then locks open on a liner lock.
Weiland polished the buffalo horn scales to show the natural dark translucency of the material at the edges, where light passes through. For comparison, see another natural-material art piece, the William Henry Lancet in mammoth tooth.
Condition and What’s Included with This Reese Weiland Wasp
Preowned in excellent condition for a knife of this age. The blade shows a clean satin finish with no chips, rolls or corrosion. The stamp stays crisp and fully legible. The scrimshaw panel remains intact, and it shows no lifting, cracking or loss at the edges of the horn.
Someone has handled this knife, so it carries the light surface marks a thirty-six year old folder collects. Still, nothing dominates the appearance or affects function. We set out our full approach under how we grade.
- Reese Weiland Wasp manual hawkbill folder
- Original Reese Weiland padded black leather pouch with the circular RW medallion, Tampa Florida
- Certificate of Authenticity that Reese Weiland issues from his own shop records
Reese Weiland Wasp Specifications
We measured the dimensions in house. Reese Weiland confirmed the maker, year and shop location directly. The Guild and first-folder dates come from the maker’s own published account.
- Overall length, open: 8.625 inches
- Blade length: 4 inches
- Cutting edge: 3.75 inches
- Closed length: 5 inches
- Blade steel: 154CM
- Blade finish: Satin
- Blade style: Hawkbill
- Lock type: Liner lock
- Action: Manual, checkered stainless thumb stud
- Handle material: Buffalo horn scales with scrimshaw by Faustina Mead
- Bolsters and liners: Anodized titanium, blue
- Back strap: Stainless steel
- Pocket clip: None
- Lanyard: None
- Weight: 5.2 ounces
- Year made: 1989
- Country of origin: United States
- Condition: Preowned, excellent
- SKU: 00190-RW-WASP-MANUAL-BUFFHORN-19890101
No document records the blade thickness or hardness, so we do not state them. Browse more preowned collector knives currently available.
Video Description: Weiland Scrimshaw Early Masterpiece
This is the Reese Weiland Wasp, a manual hawkbill folder from 1989. Weiland joined the Knifemakers’ Guild in 1988, and he built his first folding knife the following year. Therefore this piece dates to his first year of folder work. He made it in his first Tampa shop. The blade runs four inches of 154CM in satin. Overall length opens to 8.625 inches.
Faustina Mead stippled the portrait into the black buffalo horn show scale. Mead scrimshawed for Jimmy Lile, Lowell Bray, Gail Lunn and Anthony Marfione. She died in 2011. Bolsters and liners are blue anodized titanium. A stainless back strap runs the spine. A checkered thumb stud opens the blade, and it then locks on a liner lock. Closed length is five inches. The knife weighs 5.2 ounces.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is this knife?
Weiland made it in 1989, in his first Tampa shop. He joined the Knifemakers’ Guild in 1988 and built his first folding knife the following year. Therefore this piece dates to his first year of folder work.
Who was Faustina Mead?
A scrimshaw artist based in Inverness, Florida, and the Knifemakers’ Guild carried her on its roster of scrimshanders. She scrimshawed for Jimmy Lile, Lowell Bray, Gail Lunn and Anthony Marfione. She was born in 1950 and died in 2011.
Is the scrimshaw signed?
A script signature appears at the upper edge of the show-side scale, and a second mark sits near the lower corner. You can see both in the detail photographs above.
Does it come with paperwork?
Reese Weiland is issuing a Certificate of Authenticity from his own shop records, and it documents when he made the knife. See our approach to provenance.
How should buffalo horn be cared for?
Keep it away from prolonged direct sunlight and sustained dry heat, because both stress natural horn over time. Handle the scrimshaw panel with clean dry hands, and avoid solvents.
Buy This Reese Weiland Wasp
We inspect every knife in hand and describe it as we find it, wear included. This Reese Weiland Wasp pairs a first-year folder from a Guild maker with scrimshaw by an artist whose work ended in 2011. See more on the Reese Weiland Custom Knives brand page, or sell your collection to us.
