What is it about a truly handmade knife that will cause the pulse to race and the breath to become faster? Knife shapes and materials can be formed and wrought with a mechinated apparatus or they might be hand forged with coal, anvil, and fire.It has to be more to producing a quality blade than simply the means of forming and the type of steel used. There must definitely be a little more to it.
I think that a piece of the bladesmith’s spirit is hammered into every knife. The age old profession of forging blades carries a spark from the energy of every bladesmith into the production. The idea of the bladesmithing craft, steeped within legend and enigma for eons, imbues a kind of spiritual component into the sword. A wide variety of individuals observe the distinction concerning a handmade knife and a machine made knife. There is a definite difference appearing in the steel, in addition to the evident change I notice even within myself while forging a knife. It is as if a part of me goes into each sword I forge. Could it be the legendary abilities of such famous swords as Durendal and The Seven-Branched Sword comes from the spirit and life force of the bladesmith that forged them.
A mysterious link to the past, perhaps even past lives, is awoken when holding a handmade sword or else forging a knife by hand. It is a lot more than just my passion for history. It is greater than merely an rudimentary tie with the materials utilized, for we as humans posses carbon and iron in our construction not unlike steel has. That “fitting” or “right” sensation that we detect comes from something other than just the base matter of composition. It is a etheric or theological relationship to all that ever was and all that is. The feeling is emphatically positive. A deeper bond to our past and our humanity is furnished by virtue of the unpretentious use of a hand crafted blade. It brings out the soul fire, supplies us a rush of adrenaline, and causes the eyebrow to go up in reaction to the primordial and hardly cognizant conception of a collective human connection.
Just maybe it is an union of these various aspects. Several blades I have held simply do not feel right. Further investigation has typically discovered that these weren't hand forged or handmade. Machine made blades just don’t suit me. They are not as fascinating or exceptional. Whilst they might be effectively mechanically “perfect” in it's symmetry, they still somehow do not have the steadiness and sensation of a superior-quality handmade knife.
I do not know for sure but I know very well what I am feeling. A superior-quality handmade blade has a completely distinct feeling to it than a machine created blade. Possibly I’m an terminal romantic or perhaps a weirdo, for that is totally possible. Blades that “feel good” just appear to beg that they should be put to work, regardless of whether that's pruning hedges, slicing tomatoes, or otherwise doing practice thrusts in the garden as if making to slaughter fell creatures and save fair damsels. Each one of the blades I possess was kept because of the feel. Several would not be considered aesthetically flawless moreover there exists even a genuine clunker here and there. Some are quite fantastic with regards to the symmetry in addition to quality of fit and finish. But one factor all of them have in common is that they simply feel “right”.
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