Engraving/Fancy Handle materials....

After reading the comments and looking at engraved knives... I enjoy amber stag loveless with gold /silver/black inlayed engraving on the guard. Some things look good to my eye and some things that you guys say look great look like something a two year old high on mushrooms drew on the wall with crayons. The 'other' engraving' thread... the photo of that knife looks DAMN fine to me.
 
On the right knife and "mated" to the actual design, I do enjoy carving, engraving and other embellishment when it works as a whole. Sometimes I am at awe of highly embellished knives when the maker has achieved a combination of art and knife making skills (also an art as far as I am concerned) to come to fruition. I know if I tried something like that, it would look like a drunk gypsy had designed it.
(no offense intended to drunk gypsies).

At the same time my appreciation of clean unadorned work does not suffer either. Either way the knife has to flow. It is a good thing to have all the choices we do.

When it works it works for me great, when it does not work there is an old saying about lipstick on a sow that comes to mind. :)
 
I have seen too many poorly constructed, embellished knive's.
As for Loveless, generally I would agree, with a couple of exceptions. Dan Wilkerson and I have a Torcoli engraved, Amber Stag Loveless, whose long bolster is simply breathtaking.
Good topic

Dave
 
disjunction is always evident. As is harmony.
An object is, what an object is.
 
An interesting read of the varied answers but it seems that there is a consensus that indeed, poor design cannot be made right by fancy materials. There are innumerable examples of fancy but ugly knives.

That said, a nice design can be brought down by poor materials.
 
SBranson said:
An interesting read of the varied answers but it seems that there is a consensus that indeed, poor design cannot be made right by fancy materials. There are innumerable examples of fancy but ugly knives.

That said, a nice design can be brought down by poor materials.
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Bingo, Mr. Branson.

Now some of you took the OP to mean "Poorly made". Well there are indeed those, and some pretty engraving, ivory or gold furniture can indeed entice a novice into purchase....but that is not what I am talking about.

I, you, we, all hope for, expect, and educate ourselves to look for quality made knives.

No, this is about bad design....6" blades and 6" handles, bowies weighing two pounds, knives with obtuse edges...and my current favorite...the classic "Arkansas" Bowie(there is nothing wrong with it, except it was the standard 10 years ago, and a rope fileworked guard shows little imagination these days)...so I said mediocre design in the OP.

Throw some nice engraving on it and ivory scales, and some "collectors" are ready to jump up on deck....it was ok 10 years ago, maybe. But times are hard, and resale value comes into maybe a bit more consideration lately, as does superior quality across the board....the "market" is demanding more.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
It's funny, I was talking this same subject at lunch today. I took the first knife I ever sent to have engraved over to show a friend. It was not an expensive knife. I fully intended to use it. But when I got it in my hands I started thinking a little engraving would actually help make it more usable (by adding some grip to the very smooth bolsters). Now it's too darn nice, but it started me looking at knives a little differently.
 
As I said earlier in another thread:
Good engraving will usually improve a Good knife.
Good engraving will usually NOT improve a Bad knife.

I like well designed and executed engraving on knives as my collection would indicate.
As others, I feel a knife's design needs to stand on it's own merit without help of embellishments. Engraving/embellishments should be the icing on the cake so to speak.
Some "Art" knives/"ART" folder may be an exception to the above.

I believe engraving gives a maker the opportunity to demonstrate a very broad range of artistic talent from the laborious hammering or grinding of the steel to shape, to the very tedious and detailed task of engraving fine images into the steel.

Many knives will benefit aesthetically from the correct style and amount of engraving, however sometimes may not increase the overall value of the piece enough to recoup the cost of the engraving. This would be especially true of knives in lower priced ranges. On the other hand, many engraved knives will benefit aesthetically and will raise the value of the piece well over and above the cost of the engraving. In my opinion, engraving also highlights other detail or features of the knife. In some cases, engraving can be used to cover flaws or to add a little pizzazz to an otherwise plain piece. I have found that engraving adds a little durability as engraved areas of knives generally don’t show scratches as much as polished or hand rubbed satin finished areas.

I always prefer knives to be engraved by the maker, with the exception of collaborations by maker/engraver partners such as Bob Loveless / the late Dan Wilkerson, D Alton Holder / Bruce Shaw, Edmond Davidson /Jere Davidson, Tom Overeynder and Brian Hochstrat and of course Harvey Dean and Steve Dunn. My favorite knifemaker/engravers are Jerry Fisk, and Steve Dunn. It’s practically gotten to the point where these talented artist’s knives are almost expected to be engraved and values can suffer it not. My favorite engravers in no particular order are Joe Mason, Barry Lee Hands, Jere Davidson, Brian Hochstrat, Antonio Montejano and Francesco Amatori, Bruce Shaw, Simon Lytton, Julie Warenski, Ray Cover Jr. and Ron Skaggs.

Seems as of late, knife engraving is gaining popularity and quite a few well known and talented firearm engravers are taking interest in knives. I've heard reasons for this, however won't get into it here.
 
Kevin Jones said:
Seems as of late, knife engraving is gaining popularity and quite a few well known and talented firearm engravers are taking interest in knives. I've heard reasons for this, however won't get into it here.
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I have seen a couple of Churchill engraved knives over the years.:thumbup:
 
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