Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith
ilmarinen - MODERATOR
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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2004
- Messages
- 38,518
Well folks, I have been putting off making this post for two months.
The high end art knife I made with the intentions of taking it to the Blade Show, is gone. It was the one with 7.58carats of diamonds in the narwhal and gold handle.
During the move to the new store, last November,it was put in a box (or my satchel) and taken either to the new store with the equipment and supplies, or home. In either case, when i finally got caught up enough to look for it and get it prepared to send off for professional photos, I couldn't locate it. No panic at first. I just assumed it was in a different box of set aside at the shop at home. By Christmas, I had pretty thoroughly searched everywhere. I honestly don't know what happened to it. It could have been dropped or left sitting in the moving truck.....but I can't really think I would not notice that with a $15,000 knife. It could have been stolen by one of the workmen or people who helped with the move....But I really don't suspect any of them. I am at a quandary over what might have happened to it.One possible scenario is that I had four boxes of tools and supplies that I put in the smithy to sort later and decide what goes in the forge shop, into the hose shop, or into storage.My original thoughts were that I had put the knife (it was in one of my custom cases with my name and email on the tag) in one of those boxes. These boxes sat out in the open smithy for a day unattended. Now my smithy is not within sight of the public, and I live at the end of a dead end street, but it is possible that someone was cutting through ( or snooping around) my yard and stumbled upon the knife. There is a lot of stuff in the smithy, but nothing has ever gone missing before.
If it had been accidentally left or dropped, I would have hopped that the finder would have contacted me. ( I even think I had my card in the case).
The only other possibility is that it was left on the front seat ( or knocked onto the floor ) of the moving truck, which is where it would have most likely been during the move. It would have been really stupid of me to not see it, but I was really busy and worn out at the end of that day, so I could have done something that dumb. It was three weeks later that I discovered the knife was missing. I went to the truck rental place and talked the the gals behind the counter. I described the knife and case to the two women and one said, "Oh!", and went to the office and started looking around. She then came out and was going through some drawers. The other gal wouldn't look at me, and said nothing. She just was typing some stuff into the computer. Finally she gave the other gal (Who was getting sort of frantic in looking everywhere?) a cold look, and said, "It's not here, He'll have to come back tomorrow and see the manager." I came back the next day and the same two gals were working. I asked for the manager, and she came out from the office. She asked me to describe the knife in detail ( I had a real good feeling about then), which I did. She just replied, "Nope, nothing like that around here. It would have been put in my office ( where the first gal went to look immediately) and I would have locked it into the safe".
Now ,why would she ask for detailed descriptions if she knew there was no diamond handled knife in her safe???? The other two gals were avoiding looking at me, and the nervous one looked like she was going to faint.
......Now I am not one to accuse anyone of stealing from me, and I have nothing but the way they acted ( which may merely have been my take on things), but the rental place is the only choice that really makes any sense. I know nearly all the pawn shop owners in this area, and I have let them all know (quietly) about the knife. The police said that there is nothing they can do without some more concrete leads.
At this point I have mentally declared the knife lost, and will move on. I have drawn plans for a better version ( but with less diamonds). It will be more of a bodice dagger with a stiletto blade, and I am going to make the narwhal smooth and do scrimshaw on it. Instead of many smaller diamonds, I will use fewer, and larger diamonds, plus cabochon cut sapphires. There will be a gold quillion and pommel.
It does no good to dwell on things that can't be changed. Time to get busy again (I have done a lot less knife work over the past couple months).
Thanks for letting me unload here.
Photos and descriptions are here:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=579195
Stacy
The high end art knife I made with the intentions of taking it to the Blade Show, is gone. It was the one with 7.58carats of diamonds in the narwhal and gold handle.
During the move to the new store, last November,it was put in a box (or my satchel) and taken either to the new store with the equipment and supplies, or home. In either case, when i finally got caught up enough to look for it and get it prepared to send off for professional photos, I couldn't locate it. No panic at first. I just assumed it was in a different box of set aside at the shop at home. By Christmas, I had pretty thoroughly searched everywhere. I honestly don't know what happened to it. It could have been dropped or left sitting in the moving truck.....but I can't really think I would not notice that with a $15,000 knife. It could have been stolen by one of the workmen or people who helped with the move....But I really don't suspect any of them. I am at a quandary over what might have happened to it.One possible scenario is that I had four boxes of tools and supplies that I put in the smithy to sort later and decide what goes in the forge shop, into the hose shop, or into storage.My original thoughts were that I had put the knife (it was in one of my custom cases with my name and email on the tag) in one of those boxes. These boxes sat out in the open smithy for a day unattended. Now my smithy is not within sight of the public, and I live at the end of a dead end street, but it is possible that someone was cutting through ( or snooping around) my yard and stumbled upon the knife. There is a lot of stuff in the smithy, but nothing has ever gone missing before.
If it had been accidentally left or dropped, I would have hopped that the finder would have contacted me. ( I even think I had my card in the case).
The only other possibility is that it was left on the front seat ( or knocked onto the floor ) of the moving truck, which is where it would have most likely been during the move. It would have been really stupid of me to not see it, but I was really busy and worn out at the end of that day, so I could have done something that dumb. It was three weeks later that I discovered the knife was missing. I went to the truck rental place and talked the the gals behind the counter. I described the knife and case to the two women and one said, "Oh!", and went to the office and started looking around. She then came out and was going through some drawers. The other gal wouldn't look at me, and said nothing. She just was typing some stuff into the computer. Finally she gave the other gal (Who was getting sort of frantic in looking everywhere?) a cold look, and said, "It's not here, He'll have to come back tomorrow and see the manager." I came back the next day and the same two gals were working. I asked for the manager, and she came out from the office. She asked me to describe the knife in detail ( I had a real good feeling about then), which I did. She just replied, "Nope, nothing like that around here. It would have been put in my office ( where the first gal went to look immediately) and I would have locked it into the safe".
Now ,why would she ask for detailed descriptions if she knew there was no diamond handled knife in her safe???? The other two gals were avoiding looking at me, and the nervous one looked like she was going to faint.
......Now I am not one to accuse anyone of stealing from me, and I have nothing but the way they acted ( which may merely have been my take on things), but the rental place is the only choice that really makes any sense. I know nearly all the pawn shop owners in this area, and I have let them all know (quietly) about the knife. The police said that there is nothing they can do without some more concrete leads.
At this point I have mentally declared the knife lost, and will move on. I have drawn plans for a better version ( but with less diamonds). It will be more of a bodice dagger with a stiletto blade, and I am going to make the narwhal smooth and do scrimshaw on it. Instead of many smaller diamonds, I will use fewer, and larger diamonds, plus cabochon cut sapphires. There will be a gold quillion and pommel.
It does no good to dwell on things that can't be changed. Time to get busy again (I have done a lot less knife work over the past couple months).
Thanks for letting me unload here.
Photos and descriptions are here:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=579195
Stacy
