Not quite the Mona Lisa
A knife is also a three-dimensional object, so think in terms of
this:
If knives were made of stone...
You must look at your knife design as a sculptor would look at a
block of marble, as a painter would look at a canvas..
Now, my next statements are going to make a large number of
knifemakers quite angry. (Direct hate-mail to this address: Jacob Zuma, Union
buildings, Pretoria, South Africa, 0001)
Putting scrimshaw on a knife does not turn your knife into an
art knife. The knife merely becomes the frame for the art. Engraving a knife
does not make your knife an art knife. The engraving merely becomes a very
expensive frame. Using rare, expensive materials does not make your knife an art
knife.
Using all the techniques at your disposal, and making use of subcontractors such
as engravers, scrimshanders, setters, does not make your knife a work of art.
The same goes for nitre-blued damascus, anodised titanium, and whatever trick of
the trade you might have up your sleeve.
What makes a knife a work of art? For the artist, two words:
Concept and execution. For the buyer: Emotion.
The concept is the idea, the theme of what the work of art is
about. The theme is not the subject. In Da Vinci's Mona Lisa the subject is a
woman. The theme is something else entirely. I have no idea what theme Da Vinci
had in mind when he painted the Mona Lisa, when I look at it, I get the feeling
that she is quite lonely in that landscape, so maybe the theme he had in mind is
loneliness.
Execution is skill applied, craftsmanship. An excellent concept
can be ruined by poor craftsmanship, a poor concept can be salvaged with
excellent craftsmanship.
Then the knife is finished, and it is sitting on your table at
the next knife show, and some hundreds of buyers walks past, only one looks
closer and he gets "it". Concept and execution combines to evoke emotion. The
knife is sold.
Knives and the emotions they evoke is all fantasy. The bowie that will never
be used in a fight or used to scalp a slain enemy holds in it that element of
dreaming about a simpler, more violent time. Swords, daggers, battleaxes, all
are a reminder of a past that is more fantastical than realistic. If a sword can
turn a buyer into Arthur or Lancelot du Lac for a moment or if a battleaxe can
make a nerd imagine himself as Gimli son of Gloin hewing at orc's heads, then
the blade has crossed the threshold from realism into fantasy dragging the
potential buyer with it..
