My Sculpture Weblog: Sculptural Knife Vase

The Sculptural Knife Vase

I’ve been teasing for a lot of months that I’ve been working
on a knife challenge…. What sort of knife challenge?… Why, a flower vase in fact! A
machined steel flower vase with fifteen razor-sharp hardened metal blades that
encircle its valuable blooming cargo.

(Truly dried flowers on this case, it’s winter in any case)

This may occasionally seem to be an odd mixture, perhaps even a tad tongue in cheek, nevertheless this piece
has been in growth for a number of years and embodies most of the themes I
have been laying out over the previous couple of tasks. It connects numerous
conceptual threads in my work, and does so in ways in which have been sudden even to me.

So please tuck in for a protracted learn (in case you are inclined) and
I’ll do my finest to elucidate.

Preface

I’ve spent a variety of time occupied with conventional craft-forms
inside numerous studio artwork actions. Practices similar to glasswork, woodturning,
and ceramics are all crafts that obtained their begin on a manufacturing facility ground quite a bit like
machine-work. Nonetheless these crafts differ from machining in a couple of necessary
methods.

Not like machining, every of the above craft actions
represents a course of that has largely fallen out of business use. They’ve since
been picked up by artisans and have been turned in the direction of extra inventive ends. Likewise, these
crafts have signature shapes and types which are frequent inside their commerce
(Vases, bowls, urns and so forth). They’re shapes that inform that crafts specific historical past.
Most of those types are used to study their respective practices and have
develop into inseparable from that crafts visible language.

These craft-forms are of curiosity to me as a result of whereas
machining is a craft that shares an identical industrial previous, there are few signature types one can level to that uniquely consultant it as a medium. The machinist panorama appears to lack ubiquitous types that fall
neatly into the identical paradigm of craft and craft-form. One seemingly purpose is that machine-work is a sprawling self-discipline full of specialised expertise. The vary of instruments
and processes at play are so diversified it’s practically unimaginable to search out tasks
which are analogous to what one finds in a woodturning class or glass blowing
studio.

Due to this absence of distinctive craft-forms inside the world
of machined steel, I’ve spent appreciable time exploring what a “machined craft-form” is perhaps. Ought to machining finally
discover higher standing as a sculptural medium, what types may come to outline it?

I undertook all kinds of tasks to discover this, together with
hand-held kinetic artwork tasks, a machined vessel collection, and even a couple of collaborations
with different makers and machinists. These tasks drew inspiration from a lot of
the economic crafts listed above, in addition to traits inside the modern
machinist neighborhood, and even historical craft-forms similar to Japanese Netsuke and
Chinese language snuff bottles.

The Sharp Arts

The historical past of the knife is the historical past of mans materials
progress. Like machine-work, it embodies a large spectrum of metalworking
processes. One can discover numerous practitioners nonetheless placing hammer to anvil
in a manner that’s 1000’s of years outdated. And whereas its historic traditions
are alive and nicely, the world of knife making has additionally been utterly
remodeled by the adoption of contemporary machine instruments and new expertise.

The Sculpture Connection

Whereas numerous knife makers have impressed my work, I discovered it
troublesome to method the craft instantly by my work. My course of sometimes
entails stripping away the utility from numerous design or craft ideas to higher reveal what’s aesthetically attention-grabbing about them. I felt that it
is perhaps unimaginable to strip the utility from a knife and nonetheless have an
object that’s each attention-grabbing and spoke meaningfully to the craft.


It lastly occurred to me that it isn’t crucial to completely strip
the utility from a knife to understand its inherent aesthetic qualities; one
can merely put these qualities into a novel context. My earlier tasks
involving historic craft-forms have (oddly sufficient) supplied me a conceptual
bridge of types. They’ve provided me with the required framework inform a narrative about
materials progress and blade making on the similar time.

The challenge

Now there could also be a few of you on the market who’re delay by the
thought of exploring weapons of any type as artwork, however I believe this piece simply
demonstrates that knives could be many issues in addition to that. I personally am not
fully positive what all of the implications of utilizing blades as sculptural parts
is perhaps. However to those that can be important, I ask that you simply preserve an open thoughts, and acknowledge that most of the time, knives are instruments like some other.

There’s magnificence (and humor) to be present in even essentially the most tactical aesthetics inside
the inventive industrial arts, so whereas it’s simple to evaluate, it’s much more
attention-grabbing to discover, and it’s my intention to do the latter.

Technical Notes:

Since I used to be retaining this work form of a secret, I used to be not
in a position to share course of images in actual time like I’ve develop into accustom, so under
is breakdown of among the challenges I confronted in addition to among the
documentation I made alongside the way in which. 
Once more, a little bit of a learn, however for these within the nuts and bolts
of the challenge, it must be attention-grabbing.

Whereas my choice is to introduce new methods one at a
time, tackling knife making made that method fairly unimaginable. I used to be in over
my head in too some ways to rely, which was refreshing and disorienting on the similar time. I had
by no means made a knife blade earlier than (not on objective anyway), so there’s moderately a
lot to the touch on right here.

Machining the blades:

There are a number of frequent methods to make knife blades, some are
cast (assume hammer and anvil), some begin with pre-made bar inventory and go straight
to the grinder to create the form, and nonetheless others machine nearly all of
the geometry after which go to ending operations. In my case, I clearly needed
to machine the blades, however this isn’t as simple because it first appears.

For starters, I had by no means machined excessive efficiency knife
steels earlier than. Knife steels are a lot tougher than the alloys I sometimes choose.
They’re unforgiving to machine, so set-ups and machining parameters have to be
rather more rigorously utilized. Selecting an acceptable alloy was daunting, however after
a variety of analysis, I settled on a metal referred to as AEBL. Like all knife steels, it
has execs and cons to be used as knife metal.

The professional: AEBL is utilized in a variety of kitchen cutlery, so it’s
fairly frequent and simple to supply. It has nice corrosion resistance and is understood
to be comparatively simple to harden and sharpen. It is usually moderately cheap,
which is necessary for an experiment with so many blades in it. Unique knife
steels can get extraordinarily pricy, and there was no have to be unnecessarily spendy
when good choices abound.

The con: Surprisingly, there was not a variety of info on
machining AEBL. I had a tough time getting suggestions on reducing parameters.
I got here to study it is because AEBL is primarily utilized in making giant amount
business blades. It’s extra generally minimize with abrasives processes like water
jet cutters or lasers, after which floor to last form. That didn’t imply it was
un-machine-able, it simply meant that that it wasn’t frequent, so info was
scarce. I did finally get some helpful steerage from a fellow knife maker to
use as a place to begin.

Total: As soon as work obtained underway, I discovered that AEBL wasn’t
horrible to machine, even on the modest instruments that I’ve, the end was
really fairly good. However, whereas the machines dealt with it nicely sufficient, I needed to
take my time and never push issues. I discovered that AEBL has some abrasive
properties to it that wore the tip mills quicker than anticipated.

Since I needed to make 15 blades (plus some spares) for the
challenge, I burned by extra $25 cutters than I care to confess. A few of this
untimely put on may have been mitigated with a extra inflexible and balanced tooling
arrange, however I soldiered by, took my time, and ended up with fairly nice
outcomes.

Beneath can be a video exhibiting among the fixture-ing and the
warping points I additionally encountered.

Warmth-treating and Hardening metal:

One other course of I had little expertise with was
heat-treating and hardening metal. Whereas that is one thing that toolmakers and
machine designers are fairly acquainted, as a sculptor, it simply isn’t one thing I had
a lot of a necessity for, till now.

Warmth-treating is fascinating for a lot of causes; chief amongst
them is that it makes a lot of the steel work I do doable. At its easiest,
machining is solely utilizing a tougher materials, to chop a barely softer one. When
milling brass with metal, this could appear a easy mater of fabric choice.
However when reducing one form of metal, with an identical form of metal, issues begin
to get technically attention-grabbing and down proper philosophical.

That is grossly oversimplified, however consider it this fashion,
the primary think about figuring out metal’s hardness is its carbon content material, and the way
these carbon atoms are organized inside the steel. Warmth-treating is how one
arranges the atoms to create the hardness one wishes. Cutters and blades solely
have to be barely tougher than the fabric they intend to chop. So it’s
fully doable to take two items of the identical alloy, heat-treat one to make
it laborious, after which deal with the opposite in order that it’s tender. From there you may simply
form and minimize one with the opposite, kind of like reducing heat softened butter
with a tougher piece of frozen butter. That’s fascinating stuff.

Sharpening metal:

Whereas I’ve been shaping steel for many years, I had by no means
deliberately drawn a razor sharp edge onto a bit of steel for the needs
of constructing artwork. I’ve sharpened cutlery in a utilitarian context, however by no means in
a manner that was cautious of the geometry and polish of the metal. Sharpening
blades with precision was one other ability I must hone (get it).

There are seasoned knife makers who’ve perfected their sharpening approach
over a few years, and over 1000’s of knives. Some can draw an edge onto a
blade standing at a guide grinder in only a few minutes utilizing some hard-earned
muscle reminiscence. I nevertheless, wouldn’t have this ability (but!) so regardless of my lengthy
profession in metalworking; I needed to compensate for inexperience with the usage of a
sharpening fixture.

All of my sculptures are constructed round some novel meeting methodology or engineering idea that I can specific in a visually attention-grabbing manner, and this work is not any exception.

Every blade has a T formed backbone that engages with a comparable slot alongside the size of the vessel physique. The blades are secured by a few tiny setscrews that interact the backbone and supply a clamping power for the blades in every slot.

The screws are accessed from the alternative aspect of the
vessel, by reaching by the work from the ornamental pin holes precisely
reverse the lock screw. From there, the remainder of the meeting was fairly straight ahead, I used the ornamental pin holes as extra locking set screws for the stainless-steel liner of the vase.

I made a brief video to show the idea.  (under)

As you may see within the video, I additionally made some enjoyable
gadgets for transferring the work with out having to the touch the blades, one thing that
wanted fairly a bit of additional consideration. Getting this factor into place with out hurting your self or others is definitely fairly difficult. 

Anyhow, thanks for studying. 

As all the time, questions and feedback are fairly welcome.