Past Project - Knife Suite for Jehan de Pelham

Aaron's words from the Armour Archive Post:

At the end of March, I was charged by Jehan de Pelham with the task of making an array of historical table/utility knives appropriate for the later 14th century. The commission's bounds were fairly simple - the request was for: 8 eating knives, 2 prickers, and 3 carving knives. I was essentially granted free reign, as long as historical bounds were considered, and they were to be delivered in time for Crossroads in Time, 2008.

Awesome. Ok, so... how to proceed... Plan. A plan is good. Get a vision and work towards it. The carving knives seemed best as a set. An elegant set without being over-the-top seemed appropriate. The eating knives were an opportunity to see and experience a spread of designs, so all are different - some moreso than others. The prickers (I delivered 4 instead of the requested 2) were made en suite with 4 of the eating knives.

Great. So on to design... Lots of time was spent looking at period art, as well as at surviving pieces/artifacts. Often, surviving pieces are incomplete or heavily damaged. Sometimes, one piece survived which could have belonged to a set, and so elements may be pulled to extrapolate the rest of the set. The knives were designed with a combination of guidance from actual remaining pieces, period artwork, and personal experience and preference for both aesthetic and form/function.

Each piece was ground by hand out of 6150 steel - works beautifully, holds a nice edge, is tough and strong... Once roughed out, I heat-treated and tempered each blade. They were then straightened and finish-ground, then I did the cutlery work, final polish...

Full Gallery of the Set