Danzo
29-03-05, 12:51 PM
Hi folks
This is more of a tale to be told than a proper review but I've been promising Dave that I would post it up for months. There are pics...........
:O
.........although they are just of a knife, you filthy minded beasts. My camera seems to have somehow increased the size of its pictures so I can't post in the gallery but I should have some Imageshack hosting today.
Anyway, this time last year my folks were over from New Zealand and I couldn't think of anything to buy my dad. He loves books, but they add a lot to weight allowances when they are over for a long trip, and cheaper bookstores have started opening in NZ where before books were very pricey.
He does like gadgets and is quite fond of knives; indeed he still has his boy scout sheath knife. He always has an SAK on him and a Swisschamp when travelling.
So I commissioned a scandi from Dave Barker. It was a lovely birch handle with a traditional short scandi blade by either Trond or Steen. I think it was Steen because I commented to Dave that my aunts family were also Nielsens. Dave did a really great job and the sheath was one of his best.
I showed it to my mum to see what she thought and I was a little taken aback by her reaction. She went a bit emotional and started saying how she hadn't seen a knife like it since hanging out in her Uncle Einars knife shop as a child. Einar had the Henckels-Zwilling concession in Copenhagen before and after the war. I guess his shop must have looked much like kniv-pers 'Naturelgalleriat' which you can see in his website. My mum was saying how there were a lot of similiar knives in the hunting and utility section, both Danske made and from all over Scandinavia and Finland. I think there had been a return to using Scandi styles after a lengthy pre-war period of using German style hunting knives. I wonder why that was, after six years of German occupation?
:rolleyes:
She just loved the functional blade length, the smooth well formed handle, with its marvellous colours in the wood, and the reassuring dull 'click' Daves knives always have when you take them in and out of the sheath. I'd asked Dave for a largeish handle as my dad is a big bloke, but my mum is 5' 10" with very long fingers and it suited her perfectly.
I've always known my mum liked knives a lot; she carried a large Maniago switchblade when she met my dad in Israel and it was she who played a Danish version of 'mumbly peg' with me when I was small, allowing me to carry a sheath knife on my belt when I was six!
:D
The upshot was she nicked the knife before my old man even saw it and swore me to promise that it was intended as a gift for her.
:rolleyes:
Now we roll on to last August when we are visiting NZ. Daves knife hangs in the kitchen window frame along with bottleopeners, canopeners, corkscrews and such, where many Danes traditionally hang utility tools so you can find them easily. I notice my mum using it extensively in the kitchen and the garden, and she says it is one of the best knives she has ever used. However I begin to notice that if I come in first, after all of us have been out, that the knife isn't hanging in the window............
:huh:
..........so I broach the question and it turns out this is, quite literally my mums EDC!
:biggthump
When she goes out the knife goes into her handbag or coat pocket and then back to its hook in the window frame when she gets home. We went on a long trip, up beyond Auckland to Whangerei and Northland, and she did indeed have it with her every day, using it for everything from carving chunks off legs of lamb and cutting threads to preparing freshly caught fish, cutting up sandwiches and slicing fruit. And whittling. She does like whittling.
:D
So my mum loves Dave Barker, but in a nice way. Good job Dave, you made my mum happy.
:happy14:
Danzo
This is more of a tale to be told than a proper review but I've been promising Dave that I would post it up for months. There are pics...........
:O
.........although they are just of a knife, you filthy minded beasts. My camera seems to have somehow increased the size of its pictures so I can't post in the gallery but I should have some Imageshack hosting today.
Anyway, this time last year my folks were over from New Zealand and I couldn't think of anything to buy my dad. He loves books, but they add a lot to weight allowances when they are over for a long trip, and cheaper bookstores have started opening in NZ where before books were very pricey.
He does like gadgets and is quite fond of knives; indeed he still has his boy scout sheath knife. He always has an SAK on him and a Swisschamp when travelling.
So I commissioned a scandi from Dave Barker. It was a lovely birch handle with a traditional short scandi blade by either Trond or Steen. I think it was Steen because I commented to Dave that my aunts family were also Nielsens. Dave did a really great job and the sheath was one of his best.
I showed it to my mum to see what she thought and I was a little taken aback by her reaction. She went a bit emotional and started saying how she hadn't seen a knife like it since hanging out in her Uncle Einars knife shop as a child. Einar had the Henckels-Zwilling concession in Copenhagen before and after the war. I guess his shop must have looked much like kniv-pers 'Naturelgalleriat' which you can see in his website. My mum was saying how there were a lot of similiar knives in the hunting and utility section, both Danske made and from all over Scandinavia and Finland. I think there had been a return to using Scandi styles after a lengthy pre-war period of using German style hunting knives. I wonder why that was, after six years of German occupation?
:rolleyes:
She just loved the functional blade length, the smooth well formed handle, with its marvellous colours in the wood, and the reassuring dull 'click' Daves knives always have when you take them in and out of the sheath. I'd asked Dave for a largeish handle as my dad is a big bloke, but my mum is 5' 10" with very long fingers and it suited her perfectly.
I've always known my mum liked knives a lot; she carried a large Maniago switchblade when she met my dad in Israel and it was she who played a Danish version of 'mumbly peg' with me when I was small, allowing me to carry a sheath knife on my belt when I was six!
:D
The upshot was she nicked the knife before my old man even saw it and swore me to promise that it was intended as a gift for her.
:rolleyes:
Now we roll on to last August when we are visiting NZ. Daves knife hangs in the kitchen window frame along with bottleopeners, canopeners, corkscrews and such, where many Danes traditionally hang utility tools so you can find them easily. I notice my mum using it extensively in the kitchen and the garden, and she says it is one of the best knives she has ever used. However I begin to notice that if I come in first, after all of us have been out, that the knife isn't hanging in the window............
:huh:
..........so I broach the question and it turns out this is, quite literally my mums EDC!
:biggthump
When she goes out the knife goes into her handbag or coat pocket and then back to its hook in the window frame when she gets home. We went on a long trip, up beyond Auckland to Whangerei and Northland, and she did indeed have it with her every day, using it for everything from carving chunks off legs of lamb and cutting threads to preparing freshly caught fish, cutting up sandwiches and slicing fruit. And whittling. She does like whittling.
:D
So my mum loves Dave Barker, but in a nice way. Good job Dave, you made my mum happy.
:happy14:
Danzo