- Joined
- Mar 15, 2011
- Messages
- 11
Dr. David Darom and his books
I think it is time to mention here Davids work and contribution to the knife making and knife collecting world. Please get me right this is not an advertisement for his books or I want to promote or sell any of his books here on the forum. I just try to show and honour his work which he had and has contribute to the knifemaking world. I never met David in person and I probably never will and I definately never got one of his books for free and he surely doesn`t know that there is a guy here in Scotland who is collecting and reading his books.
The first books which covered the theme knives appeared many years ago " Knives Annual" by Ken Warner from 1982 to 2000 then Kertzman from 2001 until today. These books contained black and white photros and the contact details of the knife maker and guild or associations. I think since 2000 they used coloured photos. The first photos were that bad that you could see the shape clearly but hardly could see any details of the blade or the embellishment. Nowadays the photos are crisp and clear and you see every detail. It was a start for every customer or collector to get the chance to have a view on the custom knife market, developement and factory trends.
The next step was Jim Weyer 1984-1999 - Jim Weyer with his books "Knives point of Interests" book one to five. Various editions had been available on the market. I started with book three and bought the other one on knife shows. The big difference all books have been beautiful photographed and the knives artfully arranged sometime a few text sentences added. The huge difference the knives and swords on the photo looked in real life exactly the same. The problem with Ken Warners photos was that sometimes looked in the book great and when you saw them on a table at the knifeshow they looked completely different. I had the pleasure to handle a few knives out of Jim Weyer`s books and I can assure you that the looked exactly in real life how they have been represented in the book.I always enjoyed to look in these books and they were very inspiring for me to design my own knives.
A japanese photographer appeared on the marked . Naganori Tsutsumi with "Focus on blade" A photo book about knife makers and factory knives. All photos in colour and artfully arranged. The problem was part of the text was in japanes with a english translation and the book binding was absolutely horrible. We rare to get extremely expensive and the book fall apart after a few reading. Fantastic and inspiring pictures with fantastic details introducing some japanese knifemakters pretty unknown in europe or the us.
Parallel to this developement a book appered on the market "African Blade " by Ownen Wood and Dewald Reiners. Beautifuly colour pictures of south african custom knives. The book binding was superb and a pleasure to run through the pages. The only draw back it was extremely expensive to get. But the photo meet all the highest standarts at that time. Unfortunately zero informations about the knifemakers or contact details.
One Italian publisher/author brought two books on the market. Robert Allara "The World of Custom Knives" 2001 and "Handcrafted Knives Masterpieces of American Knifemakers" 1999 Both books are true fantastic and had really brilliant pictures. But both books were extraordinary expensive. Loaded with photos detailed photos a work in progress by Francesco Pachii really a treasure in my collection.
And after this little bit of history we come to the year 2003
Unknown to the public Mr David Darom approached the knife making scene. His first book "Art and Design in Modern Custom Folding Knives"
This book was completely different than any other book before. In the preface started with articles about collecting , engraving,damascus steel, opening and closing mechanisums in folders .... written by different co authors craftsmen/ women in their trade. This introduction gave any collector or newcomer the chance to learn something or to freshen up his knowledge. Background information was freely given to the public and the chance to understand why and how. Every article contained some beautiful photos to enanble the reader what the author was talking about. The good thing these articles showed a wide range of skills and developements wwithout giving the reader the feeling he or she is back in school. Each photo was telling a story on his own.
Part one
introduced 22 knifemakers or to be correct 23 knifemakers and their work. Each knifemaker is represented with a short biography a full load of his work and a photo story about his or her speciality. The photos are all in colour in superb quality and all knives are artfully and very tasteful arranged. The wonderful thing as a reader you get the chance to see a wide range of folder created by the same knifemaker over the years. Some of these knives end up in privat collections and probaly will never been seen in public anymore. With the background you have gain through the introduction you will notice details which you probaly will have never seen before that. Some knifes are grouped in families. These have been produced in different years but through the grouping they show the developement. A few knives I had in my hands so I can assure you that the pictures are not constructed on adobe photoshop. The knives look in real life like they look on the picture. The presentation shows great taste and skill-
Part two
Shows another nine folder makers - two pages for every knifemaker.
A short biography about the knifemaker and a full page of his knives. I never understood really why these knifemakers got a smaller section but never the less the photos are superb and all knives are artfully represented. Unfortunately in this section is no speciality showns of these knife makers. But these pictures are a teaser and make the reader wanting for more.
Epilogue
Contains contact informations photo credits and related books.
When I first got this book I was not able to take it out of my hands. Some photos were really breathtaking the arrangement were so tastefully executed and it was something new. A collection of knifemakes all over the world their work their speciality. I don`t dare to estimate how miuch works it msut have been to collect all these pictures and put them together to a wonderful great book.
Benefits
For a beginner this book can be a wonderful inspiration. But it is no instruction manual. A very few techniques are shown here but no work in progress or a step by step instruction. The pictures are speaking for themselves.
For a advanced knife maker this book is a great chance to see the work of his co knife makers. You probbably never get the chance to see such a wide range and such a wide selection of knives throughout the years on one knife show you attend.
For a collector you will not find prices in here but you get the chance to see a certain developement of a knifemaker mentioned here. And you get the chance to see a variety of different styles here concentrated in one book.
For the enthusiast-You simply will love this book
My personal opinion
This book is outstanding because it was new and refreshing in many ways. The pictures vary from brilliant to superb. This biographies about the knife makers are short sometimes too short to get a picture of the person. What I miss completely is any picture of the workshop from the knifemaker. There are still people out the who have no clue at all how much hard labour is involved to make a good knife and how harder it is to make a art knife.The book binding is very good which is very important if you take the book quite often in your hands and read it or just to look at the picures. Not all the knives which are shown in the book are my taste but I love the wide selection of different styles and different understandings. A book can never be a substitude for handling the knife in your own hands but this book comes very close to it. In my eyes it is a fanatstic book. Bravo David !
A quick notice - some of the knife makers which are mentioned in this book are not anymore living and some of the are not anymore taking orders or making knives. All contact details have been correct at the time when the book was published.
The book is still available on the market and the prices vary from 45 us dollar to over 150 us dollar. I would assume when the book is not anymore available it would be a quite collectible item.
There is a german translation available. It is in my collection as well but the translation is quite disappointing and I definately would not recommend it. Poor understanding - poor translation
................to be continued with his second book..............
I think it is time to mention here Davids work and contribution to the knife making and knife collecting world. Please get me right this is not an advertisement for his books or I want to promote or sell any of his books here on the forum. I just try to show and honour his work which he had and has contribute to the knifemaking world. I never met David in person and I probably never will and I definately never got one of his books for free and he surely doesn`t know that there is a guy here in Scotland who is collecting and reading his books.
The first books which covered the theme knives appeared many years ago " Knives Annual" by Ken Warner from 1982 to 2000 then Kertzman from 2001 until today. These books contained black and white photros and the contact details of the knife maker and guild or associations. I think since 2000 they used coloured photos. The first photos were that bad that you could see the shape clearly but hardly could see any details of the blade or the embellishment. Nowadays the photos are crisp and clear and you see every detail. It was a start for every customer or collector to get the chance to have a view on the custom knife market, developement and factory trends.
The next step was Jim Weyer 1984-1999 - Jim Weyer with his books "Knives point of Interests" book one to five. Various editions had been available on the market. I started with book three and bought the other one on knife shows. The big difference all books have been beautiful photographed and the knives artfully arranged sometime a few text sentences added. The huge difference the knives and swords on the photo looked in real life exactly the same. The problem with Ken Warners photos was that sometimes looked in the book great and when you saw them on a table at the knifeshow they looked completely different. I had the pleasure to handle a few knives out of Jim Weyer`s books and I can assure you that the looked exactly in real life how they have been represented in the book.I always enjoyed to look in these books and they were very inspiring for me to design my own knives.
A japanese photographer appeared on the marked . Naganori Tsutsumi with "Focus on blade" A photo book about knife makers and factory knives. All photos in colour and artfully arranged. The problem was part of the text was in japanes with a english translation and the book binding was absolutely horrible. We rare to get extremely expensive and the book fall apart after a few reading. Fantastic and inspiring pictures with fantastic details introducing some japanese knifemakters pretty unknown in europe or the us.
Parallel to this developement a book appered on the market "African Blade " by Ownen Wood and Dewald Reiners. Beautifuly colour pictures of south african custom knives. The book binding was superb and a pleasure to run through the pages. The only draw back it was extremely expensive to get. But the photo meet all the highest standarts at that time. Unfortunately zero informations about the knifemakers or contact details.
One Italian publisher/author brought two books on the market. Robert Allara "The World of Custom Knives" 2001 and "Handcrafted Knives Masterpieces of American Knifemakers" 1999 Both books are true fantastic and had really brilliant pictures. But both books were extraordinary expensive. Loaded with photos detailed photos a work in progress by Francesco Pachii really a treasure in my collection.
And after this little bit of history we come to the year 2003
Unknown to the public Mr David Darom approached the knife making scene. His first book "Art and Design in Modern Custom Folding Knives"
This book was completely different than any other book before. In the preface started with articles about collecting , engraving,damascus steel, opening and closing mechanisums in folders .... written by different co authors craftsmen/ women in their trade. This introduction gave any collector or newcomer the chance to learn something or to freshen up his knowledge. Background information was freely given to the public and the chance to understand why and how. Every article contained some beautiful photos to enanble the reader what the author was talking about. The good thing these articles showed a wide range of skills and developements wwithout giving the reader the feeling he or she is back in school. Each photo was telling a story on his own.
Part one
introduced 22 knifemakers or to be correct 23 knifemakers and their work. Each knifemaker is represented with a short biography a full load of his work and a photo story about his or her speciality. The photos are all in colour in superb quality and all knives are artfully and very tasteful arranged. The wonderful thing as a reader you get the chance to see a wide range of folder created by the same knifemaker over the years. Some of these knives end up in privat collections and probaly will never been seen in public anymore. With the background you have gain through the introduction you will notice details which you probaly will have never seen before that. Some knifes are grouped in families. These have been produced in different years but through the grouping they show the developement. A few knives I had in my hands so I can assure you that the pictures are not constructed on adobe photoshop. The knives look in real life like they look on the picture. The presentation shows great taste and skill-
Part two
Shows another nine folder makers - two pages for every knifemaker.
A short biography about the knifemaker and a full page of his knives. I never understood really why these knifemakers got a smaller section but never the less the photos are superb and all knives are artfully represented. Unfortunately in this section is no speciality showns of these knife makers. But these pictures are a teaser and make the reader wanting for more.
Epilogue
Contains contact informations photo credits and related books.
When I first got this book I was not able to take it out of my hands. Some photos were really breathtaking the arrangement were so tastefully executed and it was something new. A collection of knifemakes all over the world their work their speciality. I don`t dare to estimate how miuch works it msut have been to collect all these pictures and put them together to a wonderful great book.
Benefits
For a beginner this book can be a wonderful inspiration. But it is no instruction manual. A very few techniques are shown here but no work in progress or a step by step instruction. The pictures are speaking for themselves.
For a advanced knife maker this book is a great chance to see the work of his co knife makers. You probbably never get the chance to see such a wide range and such a wide selection of knives throughout the years on one knife show you attend.
For a collector you will not find prices in here but you get the chance to see a certain developement of a knifemaker mentioned here. And you get the chance to see a variety of different styles here concentrated in one book.
For the enthusiast-You simply will love this book
My personal opinion
This book is outstanding because it was new and refreshing in many ways. The pictures vary from brilliant to superb. This biographies about the knife makers are short sometimes too short to get a picture of the person. What I miss completely is any picture of the workshop from the knifemaker. There are still people out the who have no clue at all how much hard labour is involved to make a good knife and how harder it is to make a art knife.The book binding is very good which is very important if you take the book quite often in your hands and read it or just to look at the picures. Not all the knives which are shown in the book are my taste but I love the wide selection of different styles and different understandings. A book can never be a substitude for handling the knife in your own hands but this book comes very close to it. In my eyes it is a fanatstic book. Bravo David !
A quick notice - some of the knife makers which are mentioned in this book are not anymore living and some of the are not anymore taking orders or making knives. All contact details have been correct at the time when the book was published.
The book is still available on the market and the prices vary from 45 us dollar to over 150 us dollar. I would assume when the book is not anymore available it would be a quite collectible item.
There is a german translation available. It is in my collection as well but the translation is quite disappointing and I definately would not recommend it. Poor understanding - poor translation
................to be continued with his second book..............
