Thanks Lew.

And that is only part of the capital investment required to produce a finely crafted custom knife to the standards demanded by today's extremely discerning buyers.

The makers I have known over the years have never achieved anything like the $35 PH that you consider to be reasonable remuneration for this type of work, and they have mostly regarded their investment in the equipment required to produce fine knives to be in the nature of "hobby costs".

However, if somebody wants to make a living from his work, he must factor in his capital costs, depreciation on his plant and equipment, his insurance costs, he must make provision for superannuation, and if he wants a holiday every year, or to cover days when he cannot work because of illness, he must factor allowances for that in too.Then there is the cost of material, and any other unmentioned overheads.

Ultimately the marketplace decides the price of a product. Makers like the fellow who you consider charged you too much for his product may not be able to compete. However, if that maker was doing something for which there was a demand, and which was unique, then possibly he could continue to charge prices which to you appeared to be unreasonable.

My personal position is that modern custom knife work, for the most part leaves me cold. Don't like it at all. I much prefer older pieces, or pieces with an ethnic flavour. For instance, I have a very soft spot for puukos.

But the only way we can truly determine in an objective way if any item is over priced is by analysis of the production of the item concerned.

Of course, the marketplace is not much into objective production analysis, but it is very sensitive to price, so what we usually finish up with is the bare minimum standard that satisfies the requirement.

Talking about the market is a tricky thing. Demand can be governed by a taste or perception rather than enquiry and investigation, largely depending on how intellegent the money is :D :D :D :eek: :rolleyes:

i remain somewhere in the middle ...liking both old and new blades.... ... after making a few myself.. i've a healthy respect for the smiths who do this for a living... i do think that there are some people doing very nicely in the biz of knives... but probably not a good as some of the antique dealers.. (maybe)

i've seen some 50lbs lil giant hammer go for 2000.... but the 30 ton hydraulic press seems to be more fashionable now a days..

all that being said... i do find pendray's blades abit pricey, but apparently he's got the name to sell it

i do like this kard he made... ( except the mokume pommel :mad: )
http://customknifegallery.com/pendray1f.html


G

Yeah, spot on, Tim.

It pretty much depends on what drives a person to purchase the knife.

Like a car:- do you buy the Ferrari to cruise the beaches, or the Corolla to get you from point A to point B cheaply and reliably?

Or maybe you've got one of each in the garage.

Personally, I see modern custom knives as collectables, just as are jambiyas, keris, pesh kabz and so on.

I prefer the ethnic stuff; others prefer the work of modern custom makers.

Where it can get a bit unstable is where you buy a custom maker's knife to do the job of a tool; if that maker has produced what he sees as a collectable, it gets a bit hard to justify big dollars for what the buyer sees as a tool.

And yes, that is a seriously nice kard.

You know... Mokume is trendy. Even engagement and marriage rings made
that way. My wife would have trow such rings out of the window... :p
But they are quiet well suited for Habaki IMHO.

@ Ariel. The link provided shows an evidently chep work, but the quality of
the mounting that started this thread is evidently much better too.
I can't say if enough to justify thousand of dollars, but if the stones are ruby
(obviously not the pidgeon-blood burmese ones...) the price increase.
To put an 8K U$ mounting on a 800 U$ blade is what, in my way to appreciate
weapons, the real nonsense...

I'm flattered to suddenly see my name here, Marco.
I'm no authority on Russian art and won't claim authority on anything :)

IMO, however, I do have my personal taste reservations on overly decorated art pieces such as Fabergé Eggs

http://www.radishworks.com/ModelLib2...FabergeEgg.jpg

and cloisonée work

http://www.bennettauctions.com/2003/.../Cloisonne.jpg


as I think that they belong to a very specific expression that is not to my personal taste.

Presently there is an exhibition at the Museum, called Edictus Ridiculumby a friend, Russian artist Konstantin Bessmertny which is a fantastic example of irony and criticism on the world of Gambling, the Kitsch of getting Pharaohs, Zeus sculptures on a city dominated by Casinos which inevitably do refer to the theatrical and the ridiculous. I wish you guys could see this fantastic exhibition for what it represents. He is a 20th ~21st century Bosch or Breughel.

The entire exhibition is an installation which poses us the question of what is taste and what is the excess of it.

So I will not comment on the piece specifically as it is someone else's work. :)

Hi Antonio. Honestly I was referring to the belittling of
modern made artworks that was too strong in the replies (IMHO),
and not suggesting you're for the overdecorated ones.
I know your taste is quiet far from "Barocco Siciliano",
as is mine... ;)

Hi Carlo,
Those stones are Garnets; were they quality rubies it would be worth the price for the stones alone . ;) :D

I chipped this raw Garnet out of a quartz boulder here in New England. :)

Hi Marco,

I'm sorry if I did not get it.
I think some replies extrapolate from your original post. :shrug:
It is a risk.

How Fortunate That Our Tastes and Interests are Diverse
 

How fortunate that our tastes and interests are diverse; otherwise most of us would not be able to afford a single thing that we really wanted. This thread has really opened into a number of philosophical discussions and it is the sort of off topic thread that I enjoy.

My own collecting philosophy and taste very much parallels that espoused by Ariel, although I do have a few modern pieces of diverse origins and also a few recently reworked pieces incorporating antique components.

I remember an old forum thread (on another site) in which one participant asked of the membership which Oakeshott type of European medieval sword they would most like to own an original antique example of. One reply nearly blew me off of my seat, for its author opined he would not want an antique out of revulsion as to what evils might have been committed with it and that he strongly preferred to be the owner of a new sword of known (clean) provenance.

Provided a modern bladesmith understands balance, edge geometry and material selection including proper heat treatment for that material and has the skill to apply same, that bladesmith can likely make a blade of significantly better functional quality than most of the antique blades many of us so cherish. That is the advantage modern science has given us and many modern smiths are truly great masters of their craft. Still I must reserve a special awe for the old masters who, without a framework of science and without modern tools, managed to create some fine works out of tradition and trial and error with the most primitive of tools.

When some visitors (usually of female persuasion) ask me in a swooning tone of voice, whether some, but just some, of those horrible things might have, you know, actually ... killed a person, I try to keep a straight face and honestly answer "I hope so" :rolleyes:

As for modern steel...
 

I love it, especially the Wusthof Santoku; a real pleasure to use, although I also like the Wusthof 8 inch chef's knife.

For a dagger, however, I'll take wootz with an Ivory grip, or a nice keris with pamor 'raja abala raja'.