I follow the Knife Doctor on YouTube. I’ve watched almost every one of his daily videos. The dude is always hunting knives, repairing old knives, buying new knives and well… knives. You know? If you’re a knife guy then you understand. I enjoy watching him travel all around Georgia to pawn shops, and antique stores, and flea markets, and well anywhere that he can find a good deal on knives.

He lives in Georgia and he finds himself all over the state, he occasionally dips into Alabama, and even Florida. But he’s never really made it quite far enough down the state of Florida to where I live, North of Tampa… or has he? He’s not made a video this far South, but as I’m watching his daily video one day this past week I here him start talking about Wildwood, Florida. That caught my attention because Wildwood is only about an hour from where I live. As I listen closer, he told us all how he located a rare knife via a subscriber, and bought it. I thought… Now he’s using Proxies to dip into my territory?! It was definitely a sweet knife and I can’t say that I can blame him. I mean he needed the knife to complete a set of rare knives by Case and custom knife maker, Bill Ruple. Kevin, or Doc as we all call him, needed one last knife to complete his set of Axe handle knives by Bill Ruple… the Abalone.

In 2023 Case announced a collaboration agreement with custom Knife maker Bill Ruple. According to the Case website… “The shared objective is to offer brand new patterns and bring back others of historical significance that Case has rarely, if ever, made before. Each will offer premium features and a first-rate quality that rivals those of an original knife from Ruple’s own custom shop”.

I must say it was cool to see Doc complete his set and it was all because one of his subscribers was looking out for him. The subscriber, Austin Hastey, found that rare piece in of all places a truck stop! A truck stop I’ve passed probably thousands of times over the course of the 55 years I’ve been alive. That truck stop is none other than the 75 Chrome Shop. A place where truck drivers can stop in to buy parts for their rigs, do laundry, grab a shower, and yes they can even buy a Case Knife!

So, as Im sitting there in my home office, listening to how Doc just stepped down into my knife hunting territory, working away in my studio, I said.. “I’m going to Wildwood today. Maybe they have more Ruple knives”. So, I got myself to a stopping point with work and jumped in the truck and headed to Interstate 75 and S.R. 44 to the 75 Chrome Shop. The whole drive there Im thinking, “Ive passed this place so many times and I’ve never seen a Case knife sign”. I pulled into the parking lot and yet still no Case Knife sign. And then as I’m getting out of the truck I thought, “Well Doc said he bought the knives here, so they must have a small display near the check out counter”. As I walked through the door, sure enough, they had knives by the checkout counter. The checkout counter was surrounded by large glass cases creating a large square, and the entire right side of the counter were several large glass cases filled with Case knives. They had modern Case knives, Case fixed blade knives and of course the typical traditional patterns. As I looked through the knives I couldn’t seem to find the Ruple Knives and I thought “Well, I guess Doc was lucky to find the Abalone Ruple here in this truck stop”. And just then I spied them inside a display box in the back of the large glass display case. I asked if I could see them and the lovely lady behind the counter obliged. Boy were they beautiful! They had three, the birds eye maple, red bone, and carbon fiber. Interesting… they had a full set until Doc split them up! Those poor knives were missing their counter part. I checked the price point and gave much thought to buying the carbon fiber version. I love the tail lock design and they were all such beautiful knives, but alas I put them back. My collection is full of knives that I carry and to be perfectly honest… I would not carry any of those knives. They are, in my opinion, safe queens.

I went back to searching through the different Case patterns and I kept coming back to this Tony Bose Yellow Bone Smooth Sowbelly. According to the Case, “This knife was named for the curved arch of the knife handle that resembles a pig's underbelly. Although primarily intended for use by farmers, the Sowbelly, available with one or three-blades is great for use anywhere work needs to get done”.

You ever go knife hunting and a knife just calls your name? It happens to me all of the time. You pick it up, put it back and keep looking, but you cannot get the knife out of your head? One time I drove an hour and a half one way back to the Gator Cutlery show the following day in the hopes of finding and purchasing a knife that just would not get out of my head. Well… this Sowbelly was doing just that and so about $100 later it was riding home with me.

A recent check on eBay shows that I over paid for it but that’s OK at least I can sleep without the knife taking up space in my head and then driving an hour back to get it the following day.

Now, here’s the deal. I’m not typically a fan of yellow and definitely not the Case synthetic yellow. But this yellow Smooth Bone is something different. I only owned one other yellow knife before this one, a yellow Robeson Swing Guard that I picked up from Cheesy Moon Workshop at the 2025 Ellaville Knife Show. I never thought Id own a yellow knife and yet here we are with two.

My Yellow Smooth Bone Sowbelly, manufactured in January 2024, has been discontinued. But now it has been added to my collection and noted as my first truck stop knife. Thanks Doc! I appreciate the tip.