When and who popularized the unfinished hammer/scale look?

AVigil

AVigil

Adam Vigil working the grind
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Back in the 70's I started collecting and dreaming of making knives. Going to knife shows and reading Blade you saw all the top makers of the day and high finish on the blade was common place.

I stopped going to knife shows and buying the mags and when I started up again a few years ago the hammer look with scale left on the blade was now very common.

So when did this happen?

I like the look on some blades and was wondering who popularized it?
 
Hankins said:
Texture and contrast makes it visually interesting IMO
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Sure, but when did it start to be popular in custom knife collecting? Back in the day DE Henry, Loveless, Hueske, Dozier, Warinski etc. filled the pages in custom knife magazines. When did the hammered look start to become a regular feature in the collector market.
 
I cannot tell a lie.... it was me.... yur welcome.:p


The first knives I ever came across with the rough forge finish were Daniel Winkler's but I do not think he pioneered the look.
 
If you did deeply enough, you'll see alot of cool pieces from Jimmy Fikes and Don Fogg in that style from way back.

And I'm not talking about the Cloud Cutter. I'm talking decades ago.
 
Not too uncommon on very old forged tools. I have some examples of pretty old (100 years or a little more) Japanese woodworking blades that were forged and just the bevels are is ground.
I think it comes in and out of vogue.
You might as well be asking, "who popularized this look most recently".
 
I think Winkler, Keesler, and many others were big on supporting the "Hand Forged Knife". They and the ABS used the signs that a knife was forged as a mark of quality. These knives were usually top quality and well made. There might be texture on the bevels, but there was no scale or pits.
Sadly, today many just don't bother to clean up the bevels and only put an edge on the blade. Fit and finish are also left out to get the, "Primitive" look.

I am not a fan of the "Brute de Forge" look on every knife. It is great on a well made fighter, and OK on a camp knife,.....but a chef's blade or folder with a scale coated, hammered and pocked upper bevel looks dumb to me. I realize that there are traditional Japanese knives that utilize a contrast in the upper and lower bevel, but these are carefully created, not randomly pounded or unfinished.

The ones that get me are the stock removal knifemakers that go and pound on the bevels with a ball peen to create the look. What is up with that?
 
JCaswell said:
You might as well be asking, "who popularized this look most recently".
Click to expand...

That's really what I am asking. Thought I would make a reference as to the 1970's and the shows I attended and magazines I read to kinda provide a point in time for reference..
 
I was gonna say Daniel Winkler and Joe Keeslar as well. I'm not that in touch with the custom knife world at large, so the fact that I associate these two with "brut-de-forge" style may reflect their general prominence. I'm sure there were others a bit ahead of them in the movement. A style I would think closely parallels this is the "tribal style", seen in the nineties (and still to some extent, today) with the neo-tribal bladesmiths, guys like Tim Lively, Tai Goo, Tim Zowada, even Wayne Goddard. I see that as less about the contrast of a cleanly belt ground and sanded bevel with a forge scale ricasso, then about an overall aesthetic of knifemaking without power tools. The whole blade in this case is usually forged very close, leaving hammer texture, and the scale may be largely removed with a vinegar soak, stones and/or paper, leaving forge marks. If Don Fogg has done some brut-de-forge stuff decades ago, I need to see it as he is one of my favorites.
Matt Bailey is a guy that comes to mind right now who shows nice brut-de-forge work on the Forums.
 
Here is an article back in 93 with Jimmy Fikes pretty good read to see where he was coming from

http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/detailfs?userid={8012E0D2-C758-4030-9867-768BBDEC87DE}&ndx=27&slideshow=0&AlbumId={A64EC090-9D20-45D1-9083-936FD3040737}&GroupId=&screenheight=768
 
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