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Old 25th September 2013, 11:12 PM   #80
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
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This thread looks as if it has taken a turn to the left and is moving along a slightly different road.
I mostly limit my comments in this Forum to keris and related matters, but I also have an interest in modern knives, both fixed blade and folders. In another lifetime I was a member of the Australian Knife Makers guild, and although I did not make very many complete knives, I did make quite a lot of damascus blades that I sold to other makers.

I've accumulated folders since I was very young, and like Billman I invariably carried a folder with me everywhere, including school. In primary school (sub-12 years od age) it was Richards Lamp Post, in high school it was an IXL three blade stock knife. Still carry a pocket knife everywhere. It goes on with my trousers. I use several folders, depending on what the day holds. In a suit it’s a mini Swiss Army, around the yard its one of several Boker three blade stockman's knives. My traveling companion for around 40 years has been a big, multi-blade Swiss Army.

I don't think of myself as a pocket knife collector, but I have managed to accumulate a couple of hundred folders over the years.

Anyway, on the subject of modern manufacture.

Yes, there's not much left of Sheffield, and some other traditional centres have pretty much disappeared, but to a large extent the gap has been filled by custom makers, many of whom are very reasonable in what they charge for their work.

In Sheffield Trevor Ablett and Reg Cooper are two gentlemen who still hand-make knives --- or at least they were still doing so last time I checked, but both would now be around 70 or so I guess, so they may have decided to take a break.

In the town of Scarperia near Florence in Italy there are still at least three knife factories in production, as well as a few individual makers. The oldest of the factories is the Berti concern, I think it was established in 1895. At Berti a single craftsman still makes the knife from start to finish and signs it with his initials. These are individual bench-made knives produced under the banner of a merchant.

The prices charged for the Scarperia knives, and for the work of Ablett and Cooper are extremely reasonable, considering what you are paying for. Of course, they cannot compete on price with the $25.50 that you will pay for something out of Shanghai.

Kronckew, I understand your aversion to stainless steel. Don't like it much myself, but realistically, good quality stainless, properly heat treated will perform at least as well as high carbon steel of the same quality. Both will fail if they are not properly heat treated. The reason that sword broke was not the fault of the material, it was the fault of the manufacturer because he failed to either use good quality material, or more likely, failed to correctly heat treat that material. It was a quality control issue, not a material issue.

I suppose we need to get used to the idea that most of everything we now use is made in either China or India, but who can we blame for this? Are any of us prepared to pay our own countrymen a living wage to work for us, or would we prefer to buy the product of other countries where wages and living standards are only a fraction of those which apply in developed countries?

It is the obligation under law for any corporation to maximise profit for its shareholders. This is done by paying the lowest wage possible, which results in the export of jobs --- think "call centres in Manilla", the export of manufacturing, or the creation of an underclass in our own societies.

History tells us that nothing really changes.
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