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Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey
Drfiftwould, it has been brought to my attention that I have not answered your question satisfactorily, and you yourself have pursued a further clarification of my inadequate answer. Please accept my apologies. Let me try again.
Any fabricated item is made of a number of pieces, and often of a number of different materials, materials that can differ in nature, character, colour, texture, and so on.
In the case of a knife, or any other type of edged weapon, these pieces should be brought together so that the places where they meet, that is, their joining edges and/or surfaces, come together as closely as possible. All joints should ideally be a part of a circle or a part of a straight line. The only reason that one should be able to detect the joint is because of the different nature of the materials, not because the actual joint itself can be seen. This is what is meant by fit.
All materials used in the fabrication of a knife or other edged weapon do not usually come in the form required for construction of that knife or weapon, the material needs to be shaped and reduced in size so that it fulfills the purpose for which it is intended, once shaped it needs to be smoothed and often polished. These processes of shaping, smoothing, polishing require that the surface of the material be subjected to cutting, grinding, moulding, and abrasive processes. In the completed knife or other edged weapon traces of the processes used to produce the finished product should not be visible.
What I have outlined is a description of perfection, and this is very seldom achieved, however, the closer to perfection an item comes, the better is the fit and finish.
I was a member of the Australian Knifemakers Guild for a number of years, and I displayed my work at a number of knife shows. The fit and finish that I could achieve in a complete knife was not even remotely close to the fit and finish that was achieved by many other makers. The principal reason for this was that I used only very primitive hand tools, my ethic was that I attempted to make in the ways that were available to artisans prior to the coming of the Modern Age.
At a knife show the buyers of custom and handmade knives carry jewellers loupes and magnifying glasses, and they examine the work of the makers very closely before they part with the purchase price. It is never only a matter of the overall appearance of a knife, nor of design, it is a matter of seeking total perfection in the construction of the knife, the type of perfection that is found in finely crafted jewellery.
Clearly we cannot apply these same standards to the construction of ethnic weaponry, but the closer we get to these standards, the better is the fit and finish of the item under consideration.
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