Tai Goo Gentleman's Dirk

HTMD

HTMD

Joined
Feb 15, 2002
Messages
1,705
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Per Tai's description:
Integral style knife
Blade forged from 1065 steel
Handle is Pomele Saplele wood, tapered 60 degree isometric ellipse
Slver guard with beaded ferrule
OAL 10 1/4 in., blade 5 1/4 in.

Tai made his first integral 13 years ago and continues to refine the design to make it flow from the tip of the blade all the way through the handle. To date, I think this is the nicest one I've seen.

It's got a lot of desert mojo in it too. I knew that right away because as soon as it arrived a fight broke out between my son and 'my attractive wife' over whose it was. I had to step in and snatch the knife away. Got it locked up safe in my office for now.....and they haven't spoken to me in three days. But that's OK - I can use a little peace and quiet for a change.

PS: For the rock-hounds out there in forum-land, that's a big chunk of Selenite from Santa Eulalia, Mexico.
 
Hi Buddy,

I love this piece. That guard area is so involved and with many areas to inspect. Tai has a thing with the overall shape of the blade and how he blends the handle in to match it. It's his experience of 25+ years of knifemaking that makes it look 'easy'. We KNOW how that is....

Congrats for you. Lucky strike.

Coop
 
I love integrals. I love Tai's integrals. I love THAT Tai Goo integral. And I love that pic. I gotta lot of love today. Congrats Buddy - that's a superb piece.

Roger
 
Beautiful,outstanding knife.Time for me to do a Tai Goo search.. :thumbup: :)
 
Thanks Roger, but I wasn't totally pleased with my first image of this knife so I worked up another one that, IMHO, works a bit better.
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Leatherbird - You mentioned doing a Tai Goo search. When I was considering purchasing this knife I also did some on-line searching for pictures of Tai's blades. That's when I realized he's been working on this design for quite a while, and slowly evolving it so that now, simple as it is, it's become stunningly elegant. Not that the ones he's made in the past aren't. However, each one's different and each new one is just a little more refined.
 
Tai told me this particular design began when he found this old knife:
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Over time the design has taken various forms, like the one in the center here:
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Here's another one:
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And so on....... I like an artist of any kind who contines to evolve and grow what they do over time, always pushing into new territory so to speak.
 
Its a superb and distinctive piece, but that just about describes most of Tai Goo's work I have seen.

One question for clarification. I see that you describe it as an integral "style" piece, rather than an integral per se. Is that because it has a separate guard construction (or appears to have!)? Or do most consider this an integral anyway by virtue of the integral neck(?) contstruction.

Cheers,

Stephen

PS: I prefer the second set reference the Photo's! :D
 
Yep - that new pic is even better. Another one saved to the hard drive. :)

Stephen - I doubt there is any hard definition of the term, but this one is an integral in my books, with the blade being drawn out of a much thicker section of steel. The fact that an intricate little guard has been added doesn't take it out of the integral category, IMHO.

Roger
 
.........what Roger said.......think my use of the word 'style' was a faux pas on my part. Not being a maker myself I often stumble in trying to appropriately characterize some aspect of a particular knife. To avoid (at least limit) any mis-representation or inaccuracy, most of the time these days I try to get a clear statement from the maker that I can simply repeat in print. Of course that means taking notes and preserving the details in some kind of file system - all of which is a bit much for a guy like me! But I'm trying, honest I am.
 
HTMD,Did my Tai Goo search,pretty amazing.Never fancied collecting chisel edge knives but a Tai Goo I viewed was very interesting and very nice.Checked out integrals I could find and they were very nice but your dirk is the best example I've seen.Thanks. :thumbup:
 
Beautiful piece Buddy! (But I would expect nothing less when you get together with a maker (especially Tai.)

That last picture is excellent, but at a rock nut that is one of the biggest and nicest pieces of Selenite that I have seen. :)
 
WOW is all I can say:D
Gotta get off my duff and meet this man and possibly pay him a visit...only lives a couple hours from me.
 
i need me a TAI GOO...what's the waiting period like for one of his pieces?

i see a kris knife or sword in the background picture...that looks awesome. is there any pictures of that available in his website? i didn't see any last time i looked.
 
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