Sculptures
While in India, I wanted to continue to work in clay. I found a local potter and arranged to have him provide some local clay for me to work in. He also agreed to fire it for me. As one of my projects, I created this sculpture of Ivana and Tori hugging. This is a typical pose for them and typifies their close and loving relationship.
I provided the clay sculpture to my contact he fired it and then cast it in bronze. I will eventually have a nice golden patina added.
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Knives
This is a beautiful knife from India. The blade is Damascus steel, meaning that it has many folded layers for both strength and aesthetics. The handle and sheath are silver inlaid with black enamal.
My favorite Gerber camp knife. Not to heavy but very strong.
This is an old dagger that I found in an anquike shop. I have no idea of it's history, or age. I anticipate that because the handle is simple and metal, it is a old military dagger.
These are actually axe blades. The loops in the backs are for inserting the handles. I had stands made up for them and they make cool bookends on my desk.
This is an old folding knife that I found to be very interesting. The handle is hollow. The curve indicates that it was probably for cutting grass and grain. The hook and the handle was probably for looping it in the Indian Lungi - a traditional wrap around skirt similar to the Lavalava in Polynesian culture.
While poking around the antique stores in Hyderabad old city, I found this piece of metal. It is about 16 inches long. I found later that it is part of an armored head piece for elephants, used for piercing and mounted on their forehead. The box is shown below in more detail.
This is a simple boot dagger with a paracord wrapped handle.
This is a knife give me by my brother Allan, when I was 12 or 13. It is from Mexico. The blade is roughly etched with "Why are you trembling? I won't hurt you!" (in Spanish). The handle is bone. To keep the handle from splitting, I have added a collar of rawhide. It brings me good memories of a beloved brother.
On my mission we went visiting with some members to a small village up in the mountains of northern Italy. In the little cabin, was this knife which the old lady used in the fire place. The back is flattening as she hit it with a hammer to split kindling. The handle is made of leather disks and is scorched badly as she would use the hook to pull things from the fire. I asked her if I could have it, if I got her a new one. These blades are used for trimming trees. The hooked blade is so that one can reach up, loop over a branch and pull down to cut it off. The new one I bought for her had a hook that was probably 5 ot 6 inches instead of the two that this one had. She thought I was crazy, but this had so much character, I couldn't resist.
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