"Star Ship" by Jose DeBraga - Quebec, Ca

[betzner]

Many here are familiar with the work of Jose C. deBraga of Quebec. I lucked out seeing this piece first, so thought I would do a detailed head-to-toe image gallery of it. There are more images to come, unless I tire out. Hope you like it. I previously owned a piece like this, though not quite as complicated and not with abalone.

Edit: He is, incidentally, the creator of several pieces from at least one of the "Highlander" movies.

I would guess this knife was made around 18 years or so ago. Way ahead of "steam punk". I'll be trying to communicate with Mr deBraga for more details shortly. His work is seldom seen, much less available. Again, luck was with me, and in exceptional condition (the knife, of course, certainly not me).

Overall length 7 3/4" with 3+" blade, 4 5/8" closed. Stainless, titanium, abalone and bolster release mechanism.

EDIT: I was close. Jose says it's circa 1995.

 

[Don Hanson III]

Very Cool Piece, Bob!

 

[Lorien]

love it

 

[Bob Ohlemann]

That is insane. I can't imagine how many hours are in a piece like that. Star Ship is a fitting name; totally reminds me of an X-wing fighter. I dig it!

Bob

 

[john april]

deliciously futuristic

 

[Bob Leedy]

I applaud you on your diversity in tastes. It's not often you'd see the same guy have 2 concurrent posts highlighting both complexity for the sake of complexity and the honed down form follows function of Nathan's blades. Cool.

 

[timos-]

This maker always had some of the coolest stuff in the Knives xxxx series books. His designs made a big impression on me and greatly influenced my own aesthetic tendencies starting back in high school fine arts. Thanks very much for posting!

 

[Dawkind]

That's great.....I always liked his work.....quite the addition my friend, congratulations.

 

[betzner]

That's great.....I always liked his work.....quite the addition my friend, congratulations.

Dudley, you and I have been drawn to the same pieces so often, huh?

Bob

 

[Kislinger]

Badass futuristic piece of art.

 

[SharpByCoop]

I found myself handling and admiring this for minutes trying to figure out what I needed to show, and then what would be left out of the viewer's eyes. There is SO much intricacy and precision.

Good score! Thanks for showing us.

Coop

 

[betzner]

Coop, your image of this piece is absolutely the best. Before I received your image, I found myself with camera in hand, snapping off image after image of the crazy number of details, to the extent I realized I needed to show a great many of them, despite how bad mine are in comparison to the one shot that captures it best which, of course, is yours. You absolutely nailed the piece.

And shooting all those images took me about as long as it did to remember how the damn thing opened.

Bob

 

[betzner]

I've learned a bit more about this piece in communication with Jose. When he had only recently begun making knives, he would create a piece - and then do perhaps five such pieces, maybe more, maybe less. He did several "series" of models but soon realized he needed to differentiate the pieces from one another rather than duplicate them. That's when he began to change various aspects of the appearance or mechanisms of the knives. A changed blade here, a different type of bolster there, a tweaked mechanism, and so on.

continued below (BF seems to be tweaky right now and won't let me do this all in one post)

 

[betzner]

(continued)

But this series, which we'll continue to call "Star Ship", was sought after enough that he needed to create a marking system in order to know when a piece was created, in what order, etc. Thus the "P. III S.E. #1" mark on the inside leg on this piece, meaning Phase 3 (there were three phases), Special Edition, #1. It was a special order, the only abalone piece and had a one-of-a-kind opening mechanism that actually contains a braking system to prevent so much kickback.

Even though he had lost all records of this series and phases years ago due to a computer breakdown, he was able to remember so very many details. So thanks go out to Jose for all the help he has given telling the story of this great little piece.