Knives as social objects

T

TomFetter

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Dec 6, 2004
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Sarge's thread about pulling up stakes got me thinking. I don't own a lot of blades, but a surprising number can trace some lineage to him - and we haven't ever met outside of cyberspace. My KPH/Sarge, the ones I've ground out of old files, and soon I'll welcome another blade with a Sarge history attached.

But take that KPH/Sarge knife, for instance. Named for Sarge and prompted by Sarge's own projects, it was designed by Kismet. I bought an unsaleable knife from Yangdu ... made by Bura ... dressed it in Kismet's antler and sheath ... and with my son's help I cast a pewter bolster. Then because I talked about it here, another forumite sent me some casting crucibles to use for the next project ...

That knife isn't just a knife; it's a community in itself. As I carry and use it, I think of each of the people who are part of it. It has a social meaning, that's every bit as important as its use value. Maybe more.

The Bird and Trout knife I ground a while back reflects Sarge, whose projects made me itchy to try it out for myself. But also reflect the comments from folks here on what makes a good B&T knife, and the makers of the old French trade knives whose design is echoed in the handle. Reflects my sick and failing Dad ... the steel is from a used up file of his, that I remember watching him use 30 years ago. Reflects my sons, who stood watching the sparks as I ground it at dusk standing in the carport. Reflects my daughter, who chose the maple for its handle.

I'm realizing that all meaning, really, is social meaning. When we hear Kevin talk about fletching arrows, or Howard talk about the original Malla blade, or Munk describe chopping and hauling pine logs with his boys in Montana, or Andy show us his Nessmuk and patch knives ... the meaning isn't primarily in the object or the activity itself. The meaning is in the context - the social bonds, the history, the tradition. And in understanding ourselves to be participants within that web, not simply consumers of its products.
 
Nice post.
Great friend of mine, my lawyer, martial artist and advisor, will not accept a kukri because he just sees death. Yet the man who studied sword with him just accepted a gift khuk from me and is delighted. The kukri is about those things you touched upon, human things unique to each of us. Here, it's a friend in the woods that will harvest and protect. At home it's mostly a wood hauker. But it's not a bad thing, wherever it is with me. For the boys it represents hikes and sometimes serious wood gathering. With a lot of play.

My own Sarge knife, a gift from a friend, sits on the desk in front of me doing what its only requirement for my acceptance was; to use it well and often. On top of my machine is a wooden cross given to me by the late forumite Pappy, and a desert rose rock from Rusty. The Yangdu Special is usualy here too, as is the Rusty commemorative.



munk
 
Tom that is very well put. There is a feeling that spiritual people get from what they do that cannot be expressed easily.

I am practically the only traditional archer in my club. Most if not all modern compounders do not get that it is not just an equipment choice. There is no spiritual connection for them. Either that or they have masked it with all the machines,tools and parts between them and their bows. The expression of it must be kept in some dark closet of their mind.

To be fair I have to admit there are some traditionalists who don't feel what I do. To be equally fair I know there are many who are so far beyond what I do that I cannot comprehend them either. (Well maybe there is an inkling.)

More than a few have helped me here. Your rendition of what Sarge's gift meant to you and what it has led you to is an example of that. Being taught by observation and example is an important step for me. You have helped to reinforce this.
 
Just ran across this quote, which says it better than I could hope to.
When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendents will thank us for; and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, "See! This our father did for us."

JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900)
English writer, art critic and social reformer
Click to expand...
 
I understand and well said. I usually carry a new knife when I head on a new adventure (ie: travel, backpacking trip) it helps me remember the memories I created during the trip. Wally
 
Great post, thank you Tom
 
Beautfully written, Tom.

Are things more than things? Only to people.

The people who were there, when the blade was ground. The people who pass on the stories that make an object a treasured legacy.

It's the difference between an hierloom and an artifact.

I have a couple Russian-capture German K98 Mauser rifles. I've stripped off the ugly shellac preservative the 'victors' put on them; restored them to like factory new in 1938.

Were they captured at Stalingrad? Was one carried to the gates of Moscow? Were they used in a daring attack? A heroic defense? Both? Did they save lives or take them? Or neither?

I will *never* know. They stand there mute. They are artifacts, historical curiosities. Without Hans' or Fritz' (or Ivan's) story, no one knows. They will never be more than just rifles.

Now that little knife, now, with the maple handle.... :D I'd say that's more than a knife.


Mike
 
You're definitely onto something there Tom. I've got a table set up in a friend of mine's big metal storage building just covered with knives that I'm giving away (got other tables covered with other stuff, it's like a flea market where everything is free and folks can just help themselves). Not junk knives either, but you can guess which ones went the first and the fastest. Even had a bunch of 'em pressing me to put some kind of maker's mark on the durn things by way of a memento and to certify their authenticity. You're absolutely right, a knife can be much more than a simple cutting tool. :D

Sarge
 
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