Here it is. One of two knives that caught my eye, entered my brain and just would not leave through the duration of the East Coast Show in NY this past February. Out of thousands of knives, this one laid on the table of knifemaker and KMG Board Director, Allen Elishewitz. I paced the show for 3 days, taking in more info and visual data of knives than any human should be allowed to. Sure, many of this slew of knives were beautiful - exquisite - knives encrusted with diamonds, inlaid with pearl, you know the deal... They were all a site to behold. Yet, as each knife tried its best to surpass the beauty (and expense) of the next, this one just grabbed me. It wasn't the most expensive knife, nor did it have any diamonds... but it was UNIQUE. That's the key, next to quality in craftsmanship - the knife has to be UNIQUE. With thousands, no, MILLIONS of knives flying around the Internet, all competing to be the next cover girl for Blade Magazine, it is essential to be unique.
The two-tone color scheme and pattern of Allen's Scarab is superb. The knife uses a frame lock mechanism. This is like a liner lock, but there are no liners! The entire titanium frame locks the blade in place whic means a litterally masive amount of force would be required to have this knife close when you didn't want it to. The blade style is flowing with a mirror polished bevel section and a satin finish on the top. The guiloche work is somethnig that can be traced back for hundreds of years, yet now, this pattern gives the knife a modern look, especially with the step pattern carved into the titanium, falling away from the guilloche center. The concept for the spine of the knife seen in picture 6 gives an almost "bike chain" kind of look to it, and really suits the over all design. Even the thumbstud - well you see it! Allen's attention to detail is amazing. Even more is his ability to put so much into a knife and not go OVERBOARD. He knows just when to stop, giving this knife a very clean, sharp, flowing and modern design. Allen truly is an artist.
If you look on Allen's website, you can see many of his designs, past and present. In the progression of his work, you can see his talent and his concept evolve, comming ever closer to reaching perfection. The "scarab" is new and is not yet listed on his site, but I believe this knife is true evidence of yet another great step forward in Mr. Elishewitz's skill to produce world class custom knives.
