Just venting a bit

[unky_gumbi]

I have actually cut the wood, made the charcoal, smelted the iron and forged the blade to make one of my knives.

If you start with a blade or kit made by someone else you are not a knifemaker,

if you do so and call it your own work that is FRAUD. PERIOD.

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+infinity

Selling a kit knife as yours is fraud, yes it has your work in it but it is not your design. For me knife making starts in the mind, that little spark that inspires you to but pen to paper or cursor to screen. If it comes from your mind its your knive unless you have someone else make it for you that is.

 

[Los Angeles]

Andy Warhol was one of the greatest artistic minds of the 20th century. He changed everything the art world understood about value, fame, consumerism, culture. Andy Warhol's influence can be seen everywhere.

Andy Warhol seldom physically touched most of his original art to do anything beyond sign it. He came up with ideas and had other people do the work. He even called his studio "The Factory."

Of course I agree that people should give full disclosure about finishing knives that were pre-ground, treated and finished. I also agree that there a tremendous amount of pride that can be taken when every minute spent on a knife was spent by one person, all the way down to hours of sanding.

I just think that there's nothing wrong with having someone else take care of a few things.

Let's be sure that we encourage honest representation, original design and quality craftsmanship over all other aspects. If we focus on who cut the wood or who put the sanded finish on a knife, I think we're doing the designer and the producers a tremendous disservice.

 

[james terrio]

Interesting conversation, as always. My two cents... buying a finished factory blade and putting scales on it (which I've done several times, with a good deal of pride and satisfaction) does NOT constitute a hand-made or custom knife. And there's nothing wrong with that IF you're honest about it. If someone doesn't see the difference, nothing I could say will make them understand.

 

[sunshadow]

Andy Warhol was one of the greatest artistic minds of the 20th century. He changed everything the art world understood about value, fame, consumerism, culture. Andy Warhol's influence can be seen everywhere.

Andy Warhol seldom physically touched most of his original art to do anything beyond sign it. He came up with ideas and had other people do the work. He even called his studio "The Factory."

Of course I agree that people should give full disclosure about finishing knives that were pre-ground, treated and finished. I also agree that there a tremendous amount of pride that can be taken when every minute spent on a knife was spent by one person, all the way down to hours of sanding.

I just think that there's nothing wrong with having someone else take care of a few things.

Let's be sure that we encourage honest representation, original design and quality craftsmanship over all other aspects. If we focus on who cut the wood or who put the sanded finish on a knife, I think we're doing the designer and the producers a tremendous disservice.

This is not about the art world. In my other life I am a professional artist (photographer) and have been since 1984, one of my ex girlfriends worked in one of the painting factories in NYC for one of the most famous painters of the late 80s, when it surfaced that he had large groups of painters mass producing his work which he would apply a few brush strokes to at the end and sign, there was talk of fraud, and how he had duped the art collectors. That scandal was quickly brushed under the rug as too many collectors had too much money invested in his work to risk devaluing it.

This really cuts to the question of the perceived value of craftsmanship, and how people fraudulently misrepresenting kit finishing as knifemaking in what they sell to the public damages the perception of knifemaking.

There are a lot of unscrupulous people misrepresenting kit knives they have finished as handmade knives and doing a lively business based on that fraud. That damages those of us who honestly sell actually handmade knives as far as market perception and besmirches the reputation of the handmade knife community

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