"Day of the River"

PaulDiStefano

PaulDiStefano

Joined
Nov 14, 2016
Messages
636
Hey everyone, I have not posted in a while so here is a little update. I am going to show one piece that I had at bladeshow this year that sold along with all of the other knives on my table. I had a great show this year, even gaining my JS stamp!

this is a bowie I have not showed on the forum yet. I had finished it a little bit ago. It is a piece I titled "Day of the River".



This piece has influences from many different cultures. the piece was inspired by a song by a japanese composer named Joe Hisaishi.

The blade features a mosaic damascus with loose forms of dragons flying throughout. Back bar was designed to aid in the feeling of being immersed in a river scene. Reminiscent of the chatter of mosquitoes and other life found by a river.

The carving tells the ancient tale of the legend of the koi fish. After a hundred years of attempting to climb a giant waterfall at the end of the yellow river, one koi fish finally made it to the top and was recognized by the gods for this amazing feat of perseverance. This koi was rewarded by being turned into a golden dragon. the ends of the guard show the transition of the koi gaining his golden dragon wings.

the other side of the carving shows a flowing river scene and piled up rocks along the river banks throughout the entire piece.

blade is 13.5" overall about 19"
blade is blackened dragon mosaic damascus.
guard is blackened mild steel with 24k gold
handle is carved african blackwood.
back bar along spine is blackened brass

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PaulDiStefano said:
Hey everyone, I have not posted in a while so here is a little update. I am going to show one piece that I had at bladeshow this year that sold along with all of the other knives on my table. I had a great show this year, even gaining my JS stamp!

this is a bowie I have not showed on the forum yet. I had finished it a little bit ago. It is a piece I titled "Day of the River".



This piece has influences from many different cultures. the piece was inspired by a song by a japanese composer named Joe Hisaishi.

The blade features a mosaic damascus with loose forms of dragons flying throughout. Back bar was designed to aid in the feeling of being immersed in a river scene. Reminiscent of the chatter of mosquitoes and other life found by a river.

The carving tells the ancient tale of the legend of the koi fish. After a hundred years of attempting to climb a giant waterfall at the end of the yellow river, one koi fish finally made it to the top and was recognized by the gods for this amazing feat of perseverance. This koi was rewarded by being turned into a golden dragon. the ends of the guard show the transition of the koi gaining his golden dragon wings.

the other side of the carving shows a flowing river scene and piled up rocks along the river banks throughout the entire piece.

blade is 13.5" overall about 19"
blade is blackened dragon mosaic damascus.
guard is blackened mild steel with 24k gold
handle is carved african blackwood.
back bar along spine is blackened brass

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That's a beauty!! I had seen it previously when Coop posted it in his thread.... Nice work n congrats on your J.S. stamp!!!
 
Absolutely incredible my friend....many congratulations on your JS recognition and I'm sure many other honors, such as at Blade, will follow you throughout your career as a sensational Bladesmith and Artist. :) :cool:
 
congratulations on your fine work, a good show, and your recent accreditation:thumbsup:
 
Hi Paul! I am SO glad to hear of your passing the ABS JS tests. I didn't know this. It must have been HARD for you to 'throttle back' and make 'simple' knives! HA!

This 'Day of the River' bowie is spectacular in all ways. Including the complexity of capturing it. YIKES!

Well done. Will you be in Arkansas?

Coop
 
Dawkind said:
Absolutely incredible my friend....many congratulations on your JS recognition and I'm sure many other honors, such as at Blade, will follow you throughout your career as a sensational Bladesmith and Artist. :) :cool:
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Thanks Dudley! Yup hopefully I can keep improving and come up with better and more interesting designs
 
SharpByCoop said:
Hi Paul! I am SO glad to hear of your passing the ABS JS tests. I didn't know this. It must have been HARD for you to 'throttle back' and make 'simple' knives! HA!

This 'Day of the River' bowie is spectacular in all ways. Including the complexity of capturing it. YIKES!

Well done. Will you be in Arkansas?

Coop
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Thanks Jim. Oh man was it absolute torture LOL. I hated every second of it. I can’t think of anything less fun then spending hours and hours doing a perfect satin finish on a 13” blade. So I made them small and simple just to get the boring stuff over with. I didn’t even get a picture of the set because I was just so uninterested in them.

now hopefully I can have a little more fun with the MS set. It still won’t be my usual style because they take me so long I’ll never finish them, but hopefully a little less boring to me then the JS ones.

lol Jim. I think my future projects will be much easier for pictures. The next few big project ideas should fit better in one image.

Sadly no I won’t be going. I haven’t had almost any shop time since bladeshow. I’m sure it’ll end up taking me the next two years to even finish my 5 MS knives so I’m going to put all my focus into that. Which really sucks but I want to do as much as I can to not fail the judging the first time. I would be so mad at myself and depressed for letting it happen and delaying my first ever goal from the first day I started making knives. Which is to be a MasterSmith
 
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