Description
One hundred percent tool. One hundred percent art. For New York maker Silas Blacklow, they are one and the same.
Flowers of fine silver and pure gold unfurl at the center of this sculptural work, a warm welcome to the arrival of spring. Forward from the relief-carved integral bolster where the botanicals live, a 227mm / 8.9″ blade forged by hand from Blacklow’s homemade multi-bar twist pattern mosaic damascus, its visual ebb and flow like that of a gentle creek moving along its banks. Tall enough to rock and chop on the board, elegant and slender enough to slice and carve tableside, and refined enough at the low, pointed tip for precision cuts and detail work — the blade is built for daily use. Symmetrical convex bevel geometry slims to a thin, near-zero edge, while the rounded spine tapers distally above, balancing toughness with finesse. A touch of lateral flexibility in the forward half results.
Moving back through the heat-colored blade-to-bolster transition and the beautiful carvings, the eyes fall on a handle that answers the twisted damascus in kind. Silas has fluted by hand a piece of African Blackwood into a grip that tapers back to front in a perfectly formed oval profile, as satisfying to the hand as it is to the eye. Completing the work, a lone pure silver flower adorns the handle’s rear face.
A knife like this one asks something of you. Not much — only that you notice it. Blacklow has been leaving that kind of work on the table for years, waiting for someone who will.
