Danzo
16-05-04, 09:09 PM
Hi folks
A while ago I bought a knife from Dave Barker with a blade by Steen Nielsen. Perhaps some of you remember the review; a Linden burl handle of the highest workmanship on a razor edged knife bigger than the average scandi. We call it 'Lindy'. I was so pleased with the result that I spoke to Dave about another knife and he told me he had a very special blade by some unknown bladesmith with a caterpillarish mustache called Trond. The bloke was Trond. The mustache was Mr Caterpillar.
I knew that Trond was Norwegian but it was only recently that I realised that Steen was in fact Danish. Some of you know that I am half Danish. Somewhat strangely my mums sister married a bloke called Nielsen. Anyway, the coincidence turned a knife order into something slightly different. I asked Dave to complete the knife with the Trondblade and then to make a knife with a Swedish blade so that I would have a trio of knives made by an Englishman in Scandinavia with blades from a Dane, a Swede and a Norwegian. The Swedish knife is to be a blade by Mikael Eklund.
Which brings me to the knife you see in the gallery and that I will try and post more images of here. If you can relocate them in this thread please do; it's beyond me, I have tried.
This is a work of quite breathtaking beauty. Many of us recognise Dave as a maker of great skill and talent in the Scandinavian tradition but this work surpasses anything he has done before and is worthy of a professional.
Why 'Mr Big'? Well, that goes to the size of the blade. Trond has created an absolutely awesome piece of laminated carbon steel here. It is 130mm long. The photos give a suggestion of a filleting knife but this is no thin, bendy bit of steel. At the hilt it is 5mm thick and it is still 4mm thick halfway down. That is only a bit slimmer than some kukris. I punched this knife straight through the old shed door today.
The blade has that 'mottled' effect typical of many scandi blades but the 8mm down to the edge is highly polished. It is very, very sharp.
But that is the blade and the work of Trond, to whom I say :thanks: Trond you are a fantastic bladesmith. But what about the handle?
Dave has created something very special here. The knife comprises a curly birch front bolster, then a sandwich of red and white vulcan fibre. After that Dave has constructed a series of layers of an unknown nut tree wood, separated by strips of birch veneer. It ends with another curly birch bolster finished with a beautiful mosaic pin, courtesy of Otto. Thanks Otto!
The gallery photos, by a mate of Daves, are very good but they don't prepare you for the sheer drop-mouthed beauty of this knife. The finish is utterly flawless; smooth, highly polished but still cool to the grip. The carving is so good that only a real person could have done it. The fit in the hand is perfect; I know Dave was aware that 'Lindy' fitted my hand very well but he seems to have built a little more size and weight into the handle here to compensate for the bigger blade.
The sheath is quite wonderful. Dave was aware that I liked the little curved toe at the tip of some scandis so has formed the leather just so. I didn't ask for this, it was just Dave paying attention to the odd comment I made. The finish on the sheath is what makes it special though. Dave has embossed the leather to create three horizontal grooves at the top and a beautiful organic curve vertically which Dave has coloured in red. To do all the grooves in red would not have worked, to do none of them would have meant perhaps overlooking the effect. The use of the red on the curve alone is simply, well, right.
The overall knife is distinctly Scandinavian but it has an Elven quality as well, I think because of the subtle embossing on the sheath, which has something of the elven script that old JRR thought up. After playing with the knife for a while I knew where I had seen it before.
In my head.
But whilst watching the Lord of the Rings. One of my few faults with the film is that ugly Kit Rae style 'Elven' knife that Aragorn carries. It doesn't look right or fit the users purpose.
'Mr Big' by Dave Barker is the knife that Aragorn would and should have carried. It is a certainly still a scandi and hence a utility knife of great merit. It is also a hunting knife, and I mean that in the most literal sense; you could kill a wild boar with this knife. And then of course it is an exemplary bat for the sport of com. It is scary fast in the hand but capable of delivering massive force.
But it is also made by a craftsman of genuine skill and real power. You need some talent to make a knife in any circumstance, but to have the vision that allows you to make something as good as this separates the good from the very special.
Dave, I salute you.
:biggthump
Danzo
A while ago I bought a knife from Dave Barker with a blade by Steen Nielsen. Perhaps some of you remember the review; a Linden burl handle of the highest workmanship on a razor edged knife bigger than the average scandi. We call it 'Lindy'. I was so pleased with the result that I spoke to Dave about another knife and he told me he had a very special blade by some unknown bladesmith with a caterpillarish mustache called Trond. The bloke was Trond. The mustache was Mr Caterpillar.
I knew that Trond was Norwegian but it was only recently that I realised that Steen was in fact Danish. Some of you know that I am half Danish. Somewhat strangely my mums sister married a bloke called Nielsen. Anyway, the coincidence turned a knife order into something slightly different. I asked Dave to complete the knife with the Trondblade and then to make a knife with a Swedish blade so that I would have a trio of knives made by an Englishman in Scandinavia with blades from a Dane, a Swede and a Norwegian. The Swedish knife is to be a blade by Mikael Eklund.
Which brings me to the knife you see in the gallery and that I will try and post more images of here. If you can relocate them in this thread please do; it's beyond me, I have tried.
This is a work of quite breathtaking beauty. Many of us recognise Dave as a maker of great skill and talent in the Scandinavian tradition but this work surpasses anything he has done before and is worthy of a professional.
Why 'Mr Big'? Well, that goes to the size of the blade. Trond has created an absolutely awesome piece of laminated carbon steel here. It is 130mm long. The photos give a suggestion of a filleting knife but this is no thin, bendy bit of steel. At the hilt it is 5mm thick and it is still 4mm thick halfway down. That is only a bit slimmer than some kukris. I punched this knife straight through the old shed door today.
The blade has that 'mottled' effect typical of many scandi blades but the 8mm down to the edge is highly polished. It is very, very sharp.
But that is the blade and the work of Trond, to whom I say :thanks: Trond you are a fantastic bladesmith. But what about the handle?
Dave has created something very special here. The knife comprises a curly birch front bolster, then a sandwich of red and white vulcan fibre. After that Dave has constructed a series of layers of an unknown nut tree wood, separated by strips of birch veneer. It ends with another curly birch bolster finished with a beautiful mosaic pin, courtesy of Otto. Thanks Otto!
The gallery photos, by a mate of Daves, are very good but they don't prepare you for the sheer drop-mouthed beauty of this knife. The finish is utterly flawless; smooth, highly polished but still cool to the grip. The carving is so good that only a real person could have done it. The fit in the hand is perfect; I know Dave was aware that 'Lindy' fitted my hand very well but he seems to have built a little more size and weight into the handle here to compensate for the bigger blade.
The sheath is quite wonderful. Dave was aware that I liked the little curved toe at the tip of some scandis so has formed the leather just so. I didn't ask for this, it was just Dave paying attention to the odd comment I made. The finish on the sheath is what makes it special though. Dave has embossed the leather to create three horizontal grooves at the top and a beautiful organic curve vertically which Dave has coloured in red. To do all the grooves in red would not have worked, to do none of them would have meant perhaps overlooking the effect. The use of the red on the curve alone is simply, well, right.
The overall knife is distinctly Scandinavian but it has an Elven quality as well, I think because of the subtle embossing on the sheath, which has something of the elven script that old JRR thought up. After playing with the knife for a while I knew where I had seen it before.
In my head.
But whilst watching the Lord of the Rings. One of my few faults with the film is that ugly Kit Rae style 'Elven' knife that Aragorn carries. It doesn't look right or fit the users purpose.
'Mr Big' by Dave Barker is the knife that Aragorn would and should have carried. It is a certainly still a scandi and hence a utility knife of great merit. It is also a hunting knife, and I mean that in the most literal sense; you could kill a wild boar with this knife. And then of course it is an exemplary bat for the sport of com. It is scary fast in the hand but capable of delivering massive force.
But it is also made by a craftsman of genuine skill and real power. You need some talent to make a knife in any circumstance, but to have the vision that allows you to make something as good as this separates the good from the very special.
Dave, I salute you.
:biggthump
Danzo