Transmitting Craft

Knifemaker / researcher: Grace Horne

Grace Horne was co-researcher and expert learner for this project. She is a contemporary knifemaker with a background in metalwork and jewellery whose earlier work focussed on creating different forms of knives in an innovative and exploratory manner. She also has a background in research having studied solid state diffusion bonded Damascus steel and its role within custom knifemaking for her PhD.

Grace’s interest in knife making came from her knowledge of the traditional Sheffield knifemakers and over the last eight years she has spent time getting to know them and their craft skills. Prior to this project she had made several folding knives, but their design had been constrained by the limit to her understanding of their construction.

Examples of Grace's knives starting from early ones through to ones made during the project:

Knife manufacturer: Taylor's Eye Witness

Taylor's are one of the few traditional Sheffield knife manufacturers still remaining in the city. Their origins date back to 1896 and they make folding knives, scissors and kitchen knives, although the latter is by far the largest proportion of their trade.

They have successfully expanded and modernised their range of kitchen knives by working with new designers, but their range of folding knives has so far been neglected and sales have suffered. Currently just one employee, Russel White makes the bulk of their folding knives, and they are now keen to try to expand the trade and would like to develop a line of higher quality, higher value knives.

From their prestige range of folding knives:

Witness works circa 1890 and 2009:

The pocket knife room in its heyday and in 2009 with its current sole occupant, Russel White, with researcher Grace Horne experimenting with a parser:

Russel at work and the parser which is used to cut a shield-shaped recess in the scales for traditional decorative metalwork:

Tools of the trade including some hand made ones for specialised jobs:

Mass production of standard range knives:

Knife manufacturer: Spyderco

Spyderco are relatively small as American knife making businesses go, but they are well known for selling top quality folding knives, mostly retailing at $100-$250 (£70-£200). The knives mostly have a very ‘tactical’ look and they are almost proud of the ugliness of them. They openly value functionality and how the knife feels in the hand over looks. All knives have a distinctive hole at the top of the blade (which is their trade mark) so they can be opened with one hand.

They are a family-run business based in Golden, Colorado, at the base of the Rocky Mountains where they employ around 50 people split about equally between the office and a small manufacturing plant. They also have small numbers of knives made in Taiwan (3 lines) and Italy (4 lines - fixed blade), but the bulk of overseas production is in Japan, where they have one large and one small manufacturer.

From their standard range of folding knives:

"Collectibles" made in short (sprint) runs with different handle materials:

They are constantly developing and innovating new lines, new locking mechanisms and so on, and frequently work with custom knife makers whose names are used to market the resulting knives. Shown below are a custom knife made by Howard Viele (left) and a Spyderco Phoenix designed by Howard Viele (right):

In addition they have an economy range of knives made in China which are marketed as a sub-brand, the “byrd” range. They have a tear-drop shaped hole in the blade and retail at about half the price of the other knives:

When the business was established in the 1970s there were not people with specific knife making skills in the area and they have both recruited people with specialised skills from further afield and retrained local people. MD Sal Glesser feels that for every five people he recruits, only one will have what it takes and stay long-term. He looks for three qualities in his staff; they must be honest, reliable and enthusiastic. He felt that passion was not something that could be created, but it tended to develop over time in individuals who were enthusiastic about their work. Spyderco office and factory:

Sal's son, Eric took over running the factory unit three years ago and has turned around its profitability by introducing the Toyota way to the blade finishing and knife assembly areas of the factory, redesigning the workstations so one person follows through the whole of the process. This has greatly sped up their production and they felt it had given the company a huge competitive advantage. Assembly:

A major problem in the States is the huge distances knife parts have to travel if processes have to be outsourced and the time this takes. Particularly at the development stage of a new knife there can be many small changes that need making and shipping pieces across the country and trying to communicate about them on the telephone is very difficult. To overcome this problem they have increasingly invested in specialist machinery; purchasing the laser cutter was a large investment that was quickly recouped through time saved:

Their current area of development is designing knife parts that are easy and reliable to assemble. “No voodoo” is thier slogan and they would like to minimise the number of subtle tricks that are needed to construct a knife and make it work effectively. For example, when most knives are being assembled the pivot pin has to be tightened, then the blade tested, then the pin slackened until the mechanism works correctly. They have been developing a bush that will go onto the pivot pin so it cannot be over tightened and gives a reliable finish every time.

As part of this “no voodoo” campaign they have been cross-training the staff so they can operate in more than one area. The disadvantage of being a small manufacturer is that they easily become reliant on a few key staff members, so their current aim is to give all staff the opportunity to train in other areas of the production process away from their own specialty. He feels this also adds interest to their jobs and gives them a better feel for the whole of the manufacturing process.

Craft learners - group 1

This initial group of learners were recruited from the British Blades internet forum, selected because they were in the vicinity of Sheffield. They had access to a preliminary version of the resource which was developed using their feedback during visits to their workshops and during subsequent online discussion.

They undertook some initial sketching on their own then were visited individually by the researchers and helped to make a prototype knife from acrylic. They then completed their knives on their own with online support.

Of the initial group of five, three produced completed knives; one dropped out for personal reasons after completing the initial sketching phase and another did not continue after making a prototype knife.

All names used are pseudonyms.

Joe

Joe is in his late 30s and is a part time semi-professional knife maker, spending the rest of his time as main carer for his children. He has been making and selling small numbers of fixed blade knives for several years having undertaken undergraduate degree in Metalwork & Jewellery. He had previously attempted to make folding knives but had been unable to make the mechanism work successfully.

He made one knife during the project and was pleased with both the mechanism and how the knife looked. However, he felt the time spent making such knives would make them uneconomic for his customers and has returned to making fixed blade knives.

Completed knife:

Prototype knife made with researchers:

Initial inspiration and sketch:

Simon

Simon is in his early 20s and at college training to be a car mechanic. He is a small scale amateur maker, having made just a few fixed blade knives before for his own use and seems to have no desire to make knives to sell.

He made the most substantial contribution to the project through being very active online; asking questions, making comments, posting pictures and encouraging others. He made two knives to the same design, then another to a different design and talks enthusiastically about making more.

Third knife to a new pattern:

Second knife to same pattern as first:

First knife:

Setbacks and development:

Cardboard prototype and acrylic prototype made with researchers:

Inspiration and sketch:

Paul

Paul is in his late 50s and is an early retiree. He is a very practical type of person, having built two kit cars and restored several classic motorbikes. He is very much an amateur maker, having only made a few very simple fixed blade knives before.

The initial knife he made during the first part of the project was never properly completed as he could not get the temper of the the spring right. However, the next knife he made during the final phase of the project worked successfully. Since then he has taken apart and successfully repaired an old knife that was broken.

Completed knife to a second design:

Development of first knife as far as it progressed:

Acrylic prototype made with researchers: