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 "I’ve
had the pleasure of being around boats all my life. No, I have
never owned a yacht… let alone a dingy! But, I have been very
fortunate in having rich and famous friends who would invite me
aboard. I had recently made special knives for a big budget movie
through the personal request of the star… a well known actor who
specialized in action movies.
He
loved what I had done, and when the motion picture was finished,
he invited me to Newport Beach to be a guest on his yacht! It was
just like in one of his movies with “hot and cold” running
woman sunning themselves in various degrees of undress on the
deck, plus servants tending to all your food and beverage and
“comfort” needs! But what happened next was amazing. We were
all sitting around, and I was kidding the actor about how many
huge yachts I saw around him in the harbor that never seemed to
leave their slip. I jokingly asked him if he even knew how to sail
this “city on the water”.
I
guess these were fighting words to this very “macho” actor. He
stood up and said: “You don’t think I’m sea worthy?! Tell
me, where would you like to go?!” Without missing a beat I said:
“Well, I have a knife studio in Hawaii….”, and before I
could finish the sentence he stormed up to the bridge, and was
mapping a course! Within an hour we were out of the harbor, on
open water… on our way to Hawaii! What was even more amazing was
that the “hot and cold running women” came with us! Talk about
a luxury cruise! It was a dream come true, and to this day I still
don’t think I woke up! While we were in open waters, and being a
knife maker through and through, I was fascinated by the crew’s
knives.
They
were all magnificently made, passed down from generation to
generation. Most impressive was their shape. Though the blade edge
itself was the sharpest I’ve ever seen, there was no point. The
crew called it a “Sea Carpenter’s Quell”. It seemed that
years ago, the carpenter’s on board ships tended to be older,
experienced craftsmen. And with age came wisdom. They were usually
the one’s who split up fights and kept the crew from ending up
facing the wrath of the Captain’s punishment. To help
“squelch” temptation for any kind of real murderous
in-fighting, these carpenters would take a new crewmen’s knife
and file it down, so that in a drunken moment, no one would do any
harm to anyone else. Years later, it was also discovered that
pointed blades caused all kinds of damage to both sail, wood and
flesh in a rocking boat with wet hands, so they kept the shape for
more practical reasons.
Not
long after the “Bulwark Square” handle was adopted to give the
crew a better grip. Though functional, the crew’s knives were
nothing really to “look at”. They were made for work… not as
works of art. So to commemorate both the craftsmanship of these
knives… the wisdom of the Sea Carpenter’s, and especially my
totally spontaneous voyage across the oceans to Hawaii in a
superstars yacht… I decided to make my very own “Yachtsman’s
Knife”. Since so many things on a high-class yacht is
“labeled” in high polished copper and brass, I also decided to
make a special stand, and for the first time, to make brass
“signature plate” for it. This is the kind of knife to gaze at
and hold in your hands when you too need to escape to your own
spontaneous adventure!"
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