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- Dec 5, 2005
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I just received David Darom's book on Edmund Davidson as an early birthday present.
To be honest, at my first glance, I wasn't really that 'wowed' by the knives in this book.
(With that being said, one of the very first custom knives that I ever saw that I really wanted, was a tanto made by Mr. Davidson. I still can bring an image of that knife clearly to mind to this day.)
Well, I've been looking through this book, and it suddenly struck me how sublime and calculated for both use and embellishments Edmund's knives are. The knives really grew on me fast! There is so much to be seen, yet these knives kind of fly under the radar. Sure, the highly embellished, dramatically shaped knives are real attention getters. But to me, it's the utility oriented knives this man makes which really speak to me. Not only that, but the insight into the life of the man and his methods for making these knives is really interesting to me.
It need not be said that the book itself is amazing. As are all the Darom books I'm lucky to call my own. The quality is absolutely top rate, both print quality, the text, and the quality of the images themselves. But this book is different from the other Darom books, as it focuses solely on one maker, his lifestyle, his collectors, his tools, his influences and of course, his knives. The book gives a real keen insight into the procedures that the knife maker follows.
To me, these books, while certainly appealing to collectors of knives, is really oriented to knife makers. They contain invaluable information, if you know where to look for it, and it comes in many forms. Not simply the methods behind the knife making, but the 'way' of success for these makers. Now, this thread is just about one book, but I also received the book on Tim Hancock, and there are more in the works, so that's why I pluralized. If you were wondering. (I'll do another thread on the Hancock book at some point).
I asked David to provide me with a bunch of pictures, but he has no idea what I'm going to do with them, (although I'm sure he guessed right). The Darom series of books have proven to be a huge inspiration for me, in my own desire to make knives. I hope you enjoy the pictures, as I do. Many more to come.
To be honest, at my first glance, I wasn't really that 'wowed' by the knives in this book.
(With that being said, one of the very first custom knives that I ever saw that I really wanted, was a tanto made by Mr. Davidson. I still can bring an image of that knife clearly to mind to this day.)
Well, I've been looking through this book, and it suddenly struck me how sublime and calculated for both use and embellishments Edmund's knives are. The knives really grew on me fast! There is so much to be seen, yet these knives kind of fly under the radar. Sure, the highly embellished, dramatically shaped knives are real attention getters. But to me, it's the utility oriented knives this man makes which really speak to me. Not only that, but the insight into the life of the man and his methods for making these knives is really interesting to me.
It need not be said that the book itself is amazing. As are all the Darom books I'm lucky to call my own. The quality is absolutely top rate, both print quality, the text, and the quality of the images themselves. But this book is different from the other Darom books, as it focuses solely on one maker, his lifestyle, his collectors, his tools, his influences and of course, his knives. The book gives a real keen insight into the procedures that the knife maker follows.
To me, these books, while certainly appealing to collectors of knives, is really oriented to knife makers. They contain invaluable information, if you know where to look for it, and it comes in many forms. Not simply the methods behind the knife making, but the 'way' of success for these makers. Now, this thread is just about one book, but I also received the book on Tim Hancock, and there are more in the works, so that's why I pluralized. If you were wondering. (I'll do another thread on the Hancock book at some point).
I asked David to provide me with a bunch of pictures, but he has no idea what I'm going to do with them, (although I'm sure he guessed right). The Darom series of books have proven to be a huge inspiration for me, in my own desire to make knives. I hope you enjoy the pictures, as I do. Many more to come.
)
