Making a knife look good...

A

Angelus1781

Joined
Feb 22, 2003
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702
Something I've been thinking.


What should a knife have to make it look good? Clean lines? ricasso? What are you are steps? Do you ever have a knife that just didn't come out right, and you'd like to grind it to dust?
 
Almost 1 knife out of three comes out ugly or defected in my shop and they are thrown away or recycled into a smaller knife. Experience trains your eyes what is good & what is bad. But the look of the knife is somewhat a subjective issue, you may like a knife that I'd call it ugly. Performance is more or less a non-subjective value of a knife IMHO, that is the key to make a good knife. If you can make a knife performing its job perfectly, you are on the way to create a good knife. The effort is immense to make a decent knife and if you succeed this covers the aesthetic matters too...

Emre
 
I agree with Emre - form follows function. That said, asthetics is a tough thing. There are makers whose work just pops out at you - Raymond Richard for example - as just plain beautiful. Other knives look stiff, even if they're obviously functional. I've never been able to quantify what makes this true. There are things like the handle being the same width as the blade at the guard juncture, and general handle to blade length ideals (i.e. the Golden Ratio) that can be applied, but generally this is a very subjective issue. Some people have it - and some don't. I think most people can judge for themselves whether a given knife "looks right" and those who can pull that off more often than not will continue to make knives. Those who can't will eventually move on to what it is that they're best at.

My personal taste runs to simple, organic shapes. There are knives with all kinds of tricky grinds and cutouts in the blade etc, but put a simple straightforward bowie next to a fancy one gets my attention every time. But there are as many personal asthetics as there are people, and because of this there is a ready market for all kinds of knives. What's most important for a knife maker is to develop a personal style that is recognizable, and I think that's inevitable if one makes enough of anything. The tools available and the way the craftsman uses them do a lot to create a given maker's "look."
 
all of the above and curves
think of it this way the eye is where it's at..
just like a woman, all in the right places :D
think about the grind lines being a lady's hair and lip stick and ear rings,
they got to be just right in the right places and sharp clean lines, and the handle :eek: below the neck ;)
curved and rounded , nothing like a good shaped knife handle to fondle aye :confused: :D
 
Just make sure it looks like a Playboy playmate and not Rosanne Arnold or Oprah. :eek: :D
Scott
 
It starts with a pen and paper................get it right there and you are finished with the good looking part. Then you have to execute it properly.


The only thing that requires is experience, and as the line says, that comes from making mistakes over and over again until you learn how to hide them!!! :eek: :D :eek:
 
I think a good looking knife starts as the product of good imagination. Half the time I spend on creating a knife is in study and planning. When I get exactly what I want on paper the job's half done for me. It's a lot easyer to change a pencil line than reforge a blade. If it turns out ugly I just wad it up and throw it away, but if can get the lines to flow on paper and I start to get excited about it I know the lines will flow in steel and what ever else I use.
 
There's alot of difference of opinion in what looks good and what doesn't, and alot of different points that go into it. One thing that seems to fit across the board is good fit and finish though. Whether it's a forge finished frontier knife or a high tech tactical, make sure your sinew, pewter, titanium, damascus, whatever bolsters/guard fit close to the blade, make sure there's no gaps on full tangs whether it's stainless and micarta or carbon and wood.
 
Jerry Lairson said:
I think a good looking knife starts as the product of good imagination. Half the time I spend on creating a knife is in study and planning. When I get exactly what I want on paper the job's half done for me. It's a lot easyer to change a pencil line than reforge a blade. If it turns out ugly I just wad it up and throw it away, but if can get the lines to flow on paper and I start to get excited about it I know the lines will flow in steel and what ever else I use.
Click to expand...

welcome Jerry. I'd like to see your work.
Time to planning is crucial sometimes, but someday you just go by the grinder or forge and some blades just comes out and if you are inspired that time good, they come out mostly perfect without any preperation or planing. This is art guys, I dont care what others say, and art creation is a very subjective matter...

BW,
Emre
 
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