Who’s going? Which day? Wish I could make it for the private pre-Labor Day showing, but I’ll be out of town. Planning instead on the following Friday the 6th. Likely better for my wallet. Hope to see some of you there.
Art of Cutlery
- Thread starter bermuda_chub
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I'll be there Monday or Tuesday probably.
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As someone on the west coast what is the art of cutlery?
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P.S, I used to commute to NYC for my job so I'm not totally lost in the city.
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Private preview, I guess I'm that kid that didn't get an invite to the party. 
I think you just had to RSVP. I don't think it was invite only.Private preview, I guess I'm that kid that didn't get an invite to the party.
often these things its more about will to want to go and actively looking. There are quite a few events around NY / Brooklyn with cool things going on (and booz / food to boot!)
I still remember the first time i figured that out. It was for Fodera Guitars, it was the best beer / charcuterie / music i've had at the time and it was free!
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Thanks, I used to have a table at the New York Custom show, first in the city then over in New Jersey but that went away when the company I worked for went down. Really haven't been back to NYC since then. Its a long way from the North West.
Has anyone gone yet?
DitmasPork
Senior Member
I went to the previous one a couple years ago in NYC, had a great time, well worth stopping in—couldn’t do it this time though.
I'm planning on going this evening. Had hoped to see a report about it here already!
Enjoy! Excited to check it out on Friday. Some of the works posted on IG have looked pretty incredible.
OK, I went to the Art of Cutlery exhibition yesterday. It was fascinating.
The emphasis was absolutely on the "art". It was hosted in an art gallery. Almost without exception, these were extremely elaborate knives, with complicated damascus patterns, fancy handles, or (usually) both; many of them also had custom-built stands. Most of them were in the range of $5,000–$10,000. The exhibition did emphasize that these were meant to be tools, that one could actually use, but realistically I have to assume that even if you did sometimes use them to cut food, they'd mostly be for display purposes. I don't say this to be critical; they were pretty stunning. It's just not what I personally would spend that much money on.
Some highlights for me were "Bagua" (yes, the knives/sets all had titles), a pair of gyutos from Jackson Rumble, with contrasting black/white handles and matching but contrasting damascus patterns; "Stepping Stones", a stunning black damascus/integral bog oak gyuto from Niko Nicolaides; and "Hayase", an unhandled blade from Soichi Hashimoto, with a core of Blue #2/White #2 in a damascus cladding made from 13 separate alloys. I had been particularly interested to see a knife from Casey Vilensky of Lynn Valley Forge; I've always found his knives to be exceptionally beautiful, and have been meaning to ask about them on this site. However, the knife he submitted to this exhibition, "Hereafter", is a monstrously huge and heavy tuna sword (700mm blade length), and while it was certainly spectacular, it is so far removed from anything I might want to get that it wasn't terribly useful as a model.
I also enjoyed spending time with Abe, who runs Eatingtools; we've corresponded before (I've bought a few things from the site), and he also had a small range of other products on display, in back, out of the range of the main gallery space. It was good to see these in person.
It's only on for three more days; if you're in NYC I absolutely think it's worth a visit!
The emphasis was absolutely on the "art". It was hosted in an art gallery. Almost without exception, these were extremely elaborate knives, with complicated damascus patterns, fancy handles, or (usually) both; many of them also had custom-built stands. Most of them were in the range of $5,000–$10,000. The exhibition did emphasize that these were meant to be tools, that one could actually use, but realistically I have to assume that even if you did sometimes use them to cut food, they'd mostly be for display purposes. I don't say this to be critical; they were pretty stunning. It's just not what I personally would spend that much money on.
Some highlights for me were "Bagua" (yes, the knives/sets all had titles), a pair of gyutos from Jackson Rumble, with contrasting black/white handles and matching but contrasting damascus patterns; "Stepping Stones", a stunning black damascus/integral bog oak gyuto from Niko Nicolaides; and "Hayase", an unhandled blade from Soichi Hashimoto, with a core of Blue #2/White #2 in a damascus cladding made from 13 separate alloys. I had been particularly interested to see a knife from Casey Vilensky of Lynn Valley Forge; I've always found his knives to be exceptionally beautiful, and have been meaning to ask about them on this site. However, the knife he submitted to this exhibition, "Hereafter", is a monstrously huge and heavy tuna sword (700mm blade length), and while it was certainly spectacular, it is so far removed from anything I might want to get that it wasn't terribly useful as a model.
I also enjoyed spending time with Abe, who runs Eatingtools; we've corresponded before (I've bought a few things from the site), and he also had a small range of other products on display, in back, out of the range of the main gallery space. It was good to see these in person.
It's only on for three more days; if you're in NYC I absolutely think it's worth a visit!
TheDza
Senior Member
Damn I was in NY this weekend and completely forgot this was going on
In the early 2000s, I attended an exhibit in Chelsea by the artist David Hammons entitled Concerto in Black and Blue. When you entered the gallery, you were handed a small flashlight that emitted a beam of blue light. You needed the flashlight to perambulate the rooms, which were otherwise pitch black. Japanese harp music played in the background, but it was not soothing, as you might expect, because it drowned out the sounds of movement in the black void around you. All you had to navigate was a tiny halo of blue light, which occasionally illuminated the perplexed face of a fellow patron in your path, who also was trying to make sense of it all, searching for any clue as to what to do next, whilst simultaneously trying not collide with someone else in the same predicament. It was a brilliant metaphor.
After that, I noticed more and more galleries making use of the intimacy of the space to encourage visitor interaction, leaving the “stroll and gawk” model to the museums. In my gallery experiences since then, I’ve worn costumes, stuck my head into strange geometric spaces, sung (badly), posed for countless pictures, and waded through a ball pit filled with foam sex toys.
But the ultimate interactive experience is the one the gallery is most hesitant to offer: touching the art, especially when it is one of a kind. This is what made Abe Shaw’s “The Art of Cutlery” one of the most enjoyable gallery experiences that I can recall. There were over thirty knives on display, from a giant tuna sword to a featherweight parer, and Abe afforded his guests the experience of handling each and every one (except, perhaps, the Goldvein, which no one had the temerity to request).
I’d say my five favorite knives were: 1) a large gyuto by Joshua Prince with his damascus renderings of the solar system; 2) a formidable Nick Anger cleaver, with an interwoven mosaic of damascus patterns that flowed into a stunning integrated handle, which was then ingeniously held upright on an iron wall pivot; 3) a psychedelic collaborative project between Ben Kamon and Si Golraine, the latter of whom used a novel electrical technique to “paint” the gyuto and saya; 4) David Wolke’s “The Sturgeon”, a scimitar-shaped bladed surrounded by jewelry he’d designed using the tiny spherical mounds of caviar as his motif; and 5) an ethereal laser gyuto with honyaki characteristics that the maker (whose name I cannot recall, unfortunately) forged from bloomery iron ore collected from beach sand near his house in Connecticut.
There were no duds to be found — each knife merited the closest examination, and lovely antique brass magnifying glasses were laid out throughout the exhibit for that purpose. Abe did a brilliant job both curating, and then filling in the background story of each knife. It was a relatively quiet Friday evening in Tribeca, as the exhibit is drawing to a close today. This was a blessing, as Abe and I were able to spend a couple of hours enjoying craft ales that he kindly provided and getting to know one another as we waited for my wife to arrive from work. When she finally did, he greeted her with a wine at the door after a tough day at the office, and utterly charmed her as she toured the exhibit. She had very low expectations coming in, and walked out a fully confirmed appreciator of handmade knives.
Kudos to Abe on what is hopefully the first of many “Art of Cutlery” exhibits in the years ahead!
After that, I noticed more and more galleries making use of the intimacy of the space to encourage visitor interaction, leaving the “stroll and gawk” model to the museums. In my gallery experiences since then, I’ve worn costumes, stuck my head into strange geometric spaces, sung (badly), posed for countless pictures, and waded through a ball pit filled with foam sex toys.
But the ultimate interactive experience is the one the gallery is most hesitant to offer: touching the art, especially when it is one of a kind. This is what made Abe Shaw’s “The Art of Cutlery” one of the most enjoyable gallery experiences that I can recall. There were over thirty knives on display, from a giant tuna sword to a featherweight parer, and Abe afforded his guests the experience of handling each and every one (except, perhaps, the Goldvein, which no one had the temerity to request).
I’d say my five favorite knives were: 1) a large gyuto by Joshua Prince with his damascus renderings of the solar system; 2) a formidable Nick Anger cleaver, with an interwoven mosaic of damascus patterns that flowed into a stunning integrated handle, which was then ingeniously held upright on an iron wall pivot; 3) a psychedelic collaborative project between Ben Kamon and Si Golraine, the latter of whom used a novel electrical technique to “paint” the gyuto and saya; 4) David Wolke’s “The Sturgeon”, a scimitar-shaped bladed surrounded by jewelry he’d designed using the tiny spherical mounds of caviar as his motif; and 5) an ethereal laser gyuto with honyaki characteristics that the maker (whose name I cannot recall, unfortunately) forged from bloomery iron ore collected from beach sand near his house in Connecticut.
There were no duds to be found — each knife merited the closest examination, and lovely antique brass magnifying glasses were laid out throughout the exhibit for that purpose. Abe did a brilliant job both curating, and then filling in the background story of each knife. It was a relatively quiet Friday evening in Tribeca, as the exhibit is drawing to a close today. This was a blessing, as Abe and I were able to spend a couple of hours enjoying craft ales that he kindly provided and getting to know one another as we waited for my wife to arrive from work. When she finally did, he greeted her with a wine at the door after a tough day at the office, and utterly charmed her as she toured the exhibit. She had very low expectations coming in, and walked out a fully confirmed appreciator of handmade knives.
Kudos to Abe on what is hopefully the first of many “Art of Cutlery” exhibits in the years ahead!
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