- Joined
- Apr 6, 2003
- Messages
- 2,498
When I invited Paul Jarvis to participate as one of the Featured
Knife Artists in my second book "Art and Design in Modern Custom
Fixed-Blade Knives", the only place I found a picture of one or two
of his knives was in the "Points of Interest" books. He was not to be
found anywhere else and even not on the Web search that I made
at the time...
His knives were crying out to be displayed for all the world
to see and be awed... Lucky for us all, Paul had given some of his
knives to Eric of PointSeven to photograph and that was a great
place to begin with. I used Eric's pictures to re-create the illustrations
of Paul's knives for my book...
Paul Jarvis was born in 1962 and resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Making knives since he was thirteen years old, he sold his first knife at
the age of fifteen. His unique talents arise from an inner passion to create
beautiful objects and he has chosen knives and jewelry to do this.
Paul started his apprenticeship as a mechanic during his second year at
high school working for a company that manufactured laboratory equipment
and dealt with material failure analysis. There he was involved in designing
and making one-of-a-kind jigs and fixtures, using accurate machining tools
and a variety of materials.
Twenty years later he began working for a company that sold industrial
supplies, running their machine shop and, again, doing mostly one-of-a-kind
highly specialized creative jobs.
Never having worked under any mentor, Paul is completely self-taught,
influenced mainly by 18th-century Japanese metal artists as well as
17th- and 18th-century European craftsmen. His art also shows the
influence of ancient Greek and classical Roman designs. His specialty
is high relief carving, sculpting and background texturing using only
hammers, chisels, punches and files. Sculpting his animal figures in gold
or silver usually takes him many weeks of delicate carving.
Gold, silver, bronze, exotic woods and various gems are his materials of
choice. He tends to seek out rare materials for his unique pieces, making
each one a very special and original work of art.
Paul does his art after work hours, every spare moment he has.
Some of his knives may therefore take weeks or even many months
to complete, ending up as extraordinary one-of-a-kind masterpieces.
He usually makes no more than ten knives per year.
Shown here is "Mura Masa", 2004
The blade is made of a 64-layer single bar of Twisted Damascus by
Daryl Meier, with carved grooves and Japanese Bonji figures.
All fittings are carved and pierced Sterling silver set with 23 garnets
in 14k gold bezels. Handle material is premium mammoth tooth.
This knife, shown from both sides, took Paul six months to complete.
Overall length 13" (330 mm).
All the best,
David Darom (ddd)
Texts and illustration from my book "Custom Fixed-Blade Knives" (2005)
Knife Artists in my second book "Art and Design in Modern Custom
Fixed-Blade Knives", the only place I found a picture of one or two
of his knives was in the "Points of Interest" books. He was not to be
found anywhere else and even not on the Web search that I made
at the time...
His knives were crying out to be displayed for all the world
to see and be awed... Lucky for us all, Paul had given some of his
knives to Eric of PointSeven to photograph and that was a great
place to begin with. I used Eric's pictures to re-create the illustrations
of Paul's knives for my book...
Paul Jarvis was born in 1962 and resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Making knives since he was thirteen years old, he sold his first knife at
the age of fifteen. His unique talents arise from an inner passion to create
beautiful objects and he has chosen knives and jewelry to do this.
Paul started his apprenticeship as a mechanic during his second year at
high school working for a company that manufactured laboratory equipment
and dealt with material failure analysis. There he was involved in designing
and making one-of-a-kind jigs and fixtures, using accurate machining tools
and a variety of materials.
Twenty years later he began working for a company that sold industrial
supplies, running their machine shop and, again, doing mostly one-of-a-kind
highly specialized creative jobs.
Never having worked under any mentor, Paul is completely self-taught,
influenced mainly by 18th-century Japanese metal artists as well as
17th- and 18th-century European craftsmen. His art also shows the
influence of ancient Greek and classical Roman designs. His specialty
is high relief carving, sculpting and background texturing using only
hammers, chisels, punches and files. Sculpting his animal figures in gold
or silver usually takes him many weeks of delicate carving.
Gold, silver, bronze, exotic woods and various gems are his materials of
choice. He tends to seek out rare materials for his unique pieces, making
each one a very special and original work of art.
Paul does his art after work hours, every spare moment he has.
Some of his knives may therefore take weeks or even many months
to complete, ending up as extraordinary one-of-a-kind masterpieces.
He usually makes no more than ten knives per year.
Shown here is "Mura Masa", 2004
The blade is made of a 64-layer single bar of Twisted Damascus by
Daryl Meier, with carved grooves and Japanese Bonji figures.
All fittings are carved and pierced Sterling silver set with 23 garnets
in 14k gold bezels. Handle material is premium mammoth tooth.
This knife, shown from both sides, took Paul six months to complete.
Overall length 13" (330 mm).
All the best,
David Darom (ddd)
Texts and illustration from my book "Custom Fixed-Blade Knives" (2005)
