Handle treatments: scrimshaw and sculpture.

2knife

2knife

Joined
Mar 13, 2002
Messages
2,125
Carving figures, and animals out of the butt of the knife.. .

This strikes me as "cheese art" to a large degree.

What do you guys think? Is it just me, or are we all snobs about the "art"?

What if your favorite maker decided to make a squirrels head out of the butt? Would you buy this knife? ;)

( ..it would always be looking up at you).

I much prefer scrimshaw, i guess..

Saturday evening pontifications...
David
 
Arpad Bojtos
Virgil England
David Lisch
Almost any 'ethnic' knife

Like any stylistic design consideration, it could work or it could not work, depending on the follow-through.
 
2knife said:
Carving figures, and animals out of the butt of the knife.. .

This strikes me as "cheese art" to a large degree.

What do you guys think? Is it just me, or are we all snobs about the "art"?

What if your favorite maker decided to make a squirrels head out of the butt? Would you buy this knife? ;)

( ..it would always be looking up at you).

I much prefer scrimshaw, i guess..

Saturday evening pontifications...
David
Click to expand...

I'm with Lorien and don't think you can make generalizations as it depends on the treatment and the particular knife.
 
Thanks Lorien I think of every knife as art. And as an artist we need to try and make each knife our own with the skills we have to work with. You can look at a knife and see the skills that artist has under his belt. That is why I chisel steel butt caps as a blacksmith it is a skill I have and it took years and years to get. I do not do it on ever knife I do it on the knives that it works with. and with that said the best show I ever had was OKCA last year it was a slow show for most but I sold 4 with chiseled butt caps. I do not know where two knife is going with this but I do know he can not chisel a face on a butt cap.
 
I myself prefer carved handles to scrimshaw as the latter,
beautiful art as it may be, seems too delicate to touch....

Here are two examples of beautifully carved handles made by
a young Israeli artist and knifemaker, Vladimir Burkovski.

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

From my book "... Custom Fixed-Blade Knives" (2004)
picture.JPG
 
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I don't personally like any kind of animals carved or scrimmed into a knife. I do highly respect the art and the skills that go into it, but its not for me. I am attracted to knives that are art themselves in terms of the whole composition. The lines, materials and shape- all that good stuff which needs to work together as a whole to make something beautiful. Im not saying that this stuff can't be beautiful, but its just not my taste yet.
 
ddd said:
I myself prefer carved handles to scrimshaw as the latter,
beautiful art as it may be, seems too delicate to touch....

Here are two examples of beautifully carved handles made by
a young Israeli artist and knifemaker, Vladimir Burkovski.

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

From my book "... Custom Fixed-Blade Knives" (2004)
picture.JPG
Click to expand...

David,
i can happily eat my words after seeing the frog. I love it!
(Ribbit) ;)
David
 
As I thought, David, you are one of the good guys... It was actually
you who provoked me into posting Vladimir's ivory frogs...... :)

All the beat,
David Darom (ddd)
 
David. I love those pieces you've shown. They are really truly beautiful peices. I love to admire then when I see them but I haven't caught the itch for owning one at this point.. I still fild myself more attracted to the plain art knives.

But still, amazing knives and nice photo composition david. This really shows that there is something out there for everyoneand we can appreciate it all.
 
There were pictures of a folder by (?) Bailey Bradshaw that had a Cougar carved into the handle that was stunning.


Mitch
 
Bailey Bradshaw said:
Mitch,

Thanks for the mention.....


000_0191.jpg


000_0192.jpg
Click to expand...

It came out GREAT Bailey. If I recall, you had showed me that knife in its early stages while chatting at Blade.

While there are many knives (and other things as well) that I would not want to own, I appreciate the fine work that goes into creating them and it is a pleasure seeing them.

Peter
 
I think Larry Feugen does a lot of carving also. I'd love to spend some time learning some of the Japanese style of carving like Kelso. I probably will in the future, I've got a knife design begging to be a metallic canvas.
 
I like tastefully done carving and engraving, but I'm not a big fan of scrimshaw on knife handles. I am still waiting for Bailey to do a "Big 5" set just to see how he handles the elephant and the buffalo. :D:thumbup:
 
This is a carved gold Moth broach Jim Kelso
made for my wife......

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

picture.JPG
 
This is an amazing example of Jim Kelso's
extraordinary knife art.

All the best,
David Darom (ddd)

From a section on Jim Kelso
in my book "... Custom Fixed-Blade Knives" (2005)
picture.JPG
 
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