How many knives do you have? (This is a BIG... You throw ‘em? Shelley:
Transcription
How many knives do you have? (This is a BIG... You throw ‘em? Shelley:
How many knives do you have? (This is a BIG question.) Shelley: “I suppose somewhere well over a hundred. But it’s more WHAT I have than how many.” INTRODUCTION Shelly Berman, Actor, comedian, teacher, collector, California Shelley: “No. These pieces are tough. Pretty as they You throw ‘em? are, they’re strong and utile, but, well, I prefer showing them. I mean, these craftsmen are artists, well- Shelley: “No, I don’t have throwing knives. Some known names in the community of makers. It takes people throw knives, I don’t.” time to build a custom knife. It’s all thought out, designed, cut, shaped by hand. Each part is special: Aren’t they for self-protection? the steel, handle, material, ornamentation, engraving, tempering, finishing. ‘Custom’ is the word. Each is Shelley: “In some cases. But no. I’m not a fighter.” one of a kind.” Then what do you do with them? (This one always No. stumps me.) Shelley: “Yes. Even if they tried they couldn’t make Shelley: “Well, what do numismatists do with coins, the next one exactly the same. Each one is a new ex- and philatelists with stamps?” perience, a new challenge, a new sensation.” Oh, you put them in albums? You know these makers by name? of collectors and makers of the most artistic, the most Shelley: “Not exactly. I do display them. Sometimes Shelley: “We get to know them; get to know them as functional of all collectables, I have learned there are I just stand there looking at them, never tiring of their individuals, even as stars, even as friends. These are many who are unaware of our popular and perfectly particular beauty. Some I carry and use for their pur- folks who started as teachers, serious painters, cops, splendid interest. pose. One of man’s earliest essential tools, some are engineers, metallurgists, photographers, hobbyists who definitely for using — in the kitchen, out hunting, turned pro. Knowledgeable, daring, creative.” fter some years as a knife enthusiast, it no longer surprises me to say, “I’m a knife collector,” and see the look of restrained confusion on the face of the listener. While I know myself as a member of an internationally devoted community When I say I collect knives, I have questions to answer: fishing, hiking. I have a Slobodian, a gorgeous little Japanese...” Gee, I thought they’d all be, like, you know, hillbillies — rednecks. You collect WHAT? Slobodian? What’s a Slobodian...? Shelley: “Well, some of them are, and proud of it. Shelley: “Knives.” Knives? Antiques? Like on the wall? Shelley: “He’s a maker, one of those fellows who And while knife-making is a craft much praised and makes Custom Knives. Art Knives. He made a knife to honored universally, in America it is a distinctly cele- order for me. I can use it for... brated art form. Look at this little Japanese style folder. A tanto. I like to carry it sometimes when I hike. It Shelley: “Well, some folks seek antique knives. I prefer Custom Knives; Art Knives, users, you know, To order? They do that? Does what’s-his-name do that? feels good in my pocket. I know it will work if I need to use it. And it’s a work of art.” handmade, one of a kind, like that.” Shelley: “Slobodian. They often do that. One time I Swords? I love swords. King Arthur and stuff. took that Slobodian to the kitchen to trim a pineapple I A work of art? Yes, I guess it is. I like it. Who made it? held the knife, set up the pineapple and... and, I turned Shelley: “Well, some collect swords. Custom swords around and put the knife back in the display table.” Let me show you some custom knives — are the most beautiful. Contemporary spins on antiques are exciting pieces as well.” 6 Shelley: “Old what’s-his-name. Come on inside. Aha! Afraid to ruin it, right? some real art knives.” 7 About Slobodian cott was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was raised in Valley Forge where George Washington and his troops spent the winter of 1777. The area has a rich history in the making of rifles and knives. His high school was built on the site where they made the Conestoga wagons that brought so many westward. After high school, Scott went into the military. It was there he made his first knife from an old bayonet. He also learned lapidary, ceramics and jewelry casting. Woodworking came with the family lumber business. His mother is a well known watercolor painter. Scott went to Penn State University, Oklahoma University, and then graduated with High Honors from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California... the alma mater of another knifemaker, Al Mar. Scott went on to become a successful commercial photographer and built a studio in Hollywood. During a shooting at a ceramics factory, Scott befriended the late Bob Engnath. Bob was the manager of the plant, but he also had a side business making and selling knife blanks to the muzzleloading industry. In the early 80’s, Bob began experimenting with the idea of recreating a decent samurai sword out of modern materials. PHOTO OPPOSITE RIGHT RED DRAGON. 11" clay tempered 1050 carbon steel, silk wrap over ray skin, silver fittings, dyed Maple burl 8 ABOUT SLOBODIAN Scott was fascinated and built several of Bob’s blades. Then he bought his first Burr King grinder and started making Japanese blades himself, building on Bob’s experiments and guidence. Joining the Guild in 1991, exposed him to Louis Mills and Jim Kelso...an incredible smith and a great “Japanese” artist who made many masterpieces together. Scott felt he had found his path to artistic expression. In the late 90’s, Scott won the coveted Knives Illustrated Art Knife of the Year Award for four years in a row. He is a frequent winner of the Best Sword catagory at many shows. Six years ago he won “Best Table” at the Italian Knife- maker’s Guild in Milan, Italy. In 2003, Scott won the Friberg Comraderie Award at the Guild Show in Orlando. He is published worldwide and has knives in over 20 countries. In the mid 90’s, Scott closed his studio and he and his wife, Barbara, moved to Northern Caifornia and built a ranch with a large studio. The mountains look and feel like Japan and the remoteness lends itself to the concentration needed PHOTO OPPOSITE LEFT SUMMER 11" clay tempered 1050 carbon steel, leather wrap over ray skin, Chinese gold fittings engraved by for fine swords. Barbara Slobodian, Redwood burl sheath Most of Scott’s knives are in the Japanese style, however PHOTO BELOW he is known for his fantasy pieces, bowies, and miniatures. DRAGON JAR and LIZARD RICE BOWL This is something he does to keep fresh. Barbara, Scott’s wife, brings her East Asian Studies degree to the family business by way of knowledge, inspiration, critique, and now her engraving. He continues to improve his product with new ideas, materials, and research. 10 11 Sword Art THE NATURE OF AESTHETICS AND THE JAPANESE SWORD AS A FINE ART Paul R. Allman, writer, collector The following text is from: “Visions within Visions” IN WHOSE EYE IS BEAUTY? ell me, if you can, why the night cry of the mockingbird sounds cheering and hopeful in the Spring, while its cry in the Autumn night seems to us so lonely and mournful? Or, if we dismiss that question as simply the response of Man to the seasons, why do the Japanese so love the peony and nearly ignore the rose, while we in the West do the reverse? These are aesthetic questions. And aesthetic judgments are beyond “scientific” proof. While any good library has the mountain of materials on aesthetics, the sum total seems to be that some things have a power to draw the eye and capture the mind in such a way that we call these things “beautiful” or “artistic.” As evolutionary history is measured, practically the first thing Man did, after he learned how to make tools, was to 12 PHOTO ABOVE ETERNAL 9" clay tempered 1050 carbon steel, silver fittings, dyed spalted Birch handle and sheath 13 SWORD ART – JAPANESE SWORDS AND KNIVES decorate them with “art.” And he has never ceased to be amazed at the products of what likely began with his scraping at some early tool out of boredom. IS ANY ART RUBBISH IF NO ONE APPRECIATES IT? It is said that taste is fashion’s child. Appreciation of the sword, as of any art form, can be wildly popular or insignificant, depending upon cultural and historical pressures. But is the sword itself any different? The sword remains what it has always been. What changes is the number of men who can see it and the kind and quality of vision they have. “CRAFT,” “ART” AND THE SWORD: SOME DEFINITIONS It is important to understand that beauty is not the same as art. As one of our local artists, Tom Akawie, replied when told art is everywhere, “No, Beauty is everywhere, art is rare.” The difference, basically, between art and beauty is that beauty occurs willy-nilly as a normal product of life, while art is many things, but is always the product of Man. It isn’t what a thing is made of, how it is made, or any other of the usual divisions, that ranks a thing. It is the attitude it PHOTO ABOVE demands and the effect it produces that rates a thing from FROG JAR daub to high art. The sword is no exception. It can range from grossly crude wakimono, “country things,” little better than primitive tools, to works of such transcendent beauty, that only those unable to surmount their fear of the sword-as-weapon have, in my experience, failed to be deeply moved by the beauty of a fine sword. 14 PHOTO OPPOSITE RIGHT DRAGONFLY DAISHO 28" and 24" clay tempered carbon steel, leather wrap over ray skin, silver fittings, Zebrawood sheathes, from the Piretti collection SWORD ART – JAPANESE SWORDS AND KNIVES It is my opinion that the sword, at its best, is High Art of a very high order. WHY WORRY ABOUT IT?: WE KNOW THE SWORD IS ART The question of the sword, at its best, as fine art and high art, is, to my mind, highly important. It is also more difficult than it appears (as I have discovered, to my sorrow, on writing this paper). In a time when we see books on “The Art of Pressed Glass,” our simple assertion that the sword is fine art does nothing. If the sword is ever to receive the attention and appreciation it deserves, from museum people, art historians and others interested in this special class of things called “art,” we must put the sword in perspective as a “fine art,” both within the context of Japanese art history and within an aesthetic framework to which Western art historians can relate. If we fail in this objective, we will see the sword become a “minor art” given only cursory attention by serious scholars outside Japan. PHOTO OPPOSITE LEFT But this is not an easy task. The factual complexity of DRAGONFLY DAISHO sword knowledge and the very difficulty of attaining the 28" and 24" clay tempered carbon steel, leather wrap over ray skin, silver fittings, Zebrawood sheathes, from the Piretti collection connoisseurship that is required to appreciate this “high art” makes it necessary that the sword be shown to be worth the time. It also means that the sword must be presented in language more cognizant of contemporary critical and aesthetic thought than our usual “collector talk.” However, the sword has certain assets that are not widely recognized. It embodies an important set of questions about art and aesthetics... that branch of thought that concerns itself with the nature, definition and meaning of “beauty” and its presence in “art”... that have been widely written 17