Can there be something like a kind of erotic in a material like steel? I think I felt something like that when I received my latest steel delivery.
I got in contact with a local dealer where I can get higher quality steel with a nice pre ground surface finish. They are specialized in tool steel and offer every useful dimension I might need for making knives. Every piece is produced with a high precision and professionality I did not find at any other online retailer for knifemaking supplies.
The moment I talked about at the top was, when i received the package, tightly wrapped cardboard, tape and plastic straps. I pulled out the steel, additionally wrapped in bubble wrap. And then came the steel…
The steel was clad in brown waxed packaging paper and you could already smell the oil they used on the steel to avoid rust. The oil had soaked a bit through the paper – just enough to make it darker in some spots like when you have butter on paper. Unwrapping this brown paper and finding this shiny and precision ground steel and smelling the oil was so satisfying, that I wanted to immediately head to my workshop and start my next project.
It is a bit strange how the perception of the material changes during the building process. Now it is just a rectangular piece of hard and shiny metal. A beautiful raw material waiting to be transformed. Then you bring it to its shape an you see the beauty of the final product emerge step by step. Finally you hold something in your hand where you can not imagine that it started as just a block of metal. You feel the ergonomic handle, see the beauty of the wood grain and you get a feeling for the balance of the knife, the sharpness and the feeling that you built a faithful companion for somebody who cherishes it.