supernatural

Knifemaking: The Spellcaster Epilogue

/ ballardmidyette / Leave a comment

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

The Spellcaster was a lesson in faith- I wasn’t sure if it would even turn out.  I loved the idea that the steel came from a bedframe but I wouldn’t know if it would harden and temper properly till I had put in a lot of work on it.  It did.  I’ve been working on this blade a long time off and on and finally, like many things in life, I just had to take a leap and just go for it.  It is a thinner blade, very nimble and made for a smaller hand (well, smaller than mine….)

The lesson here is to trust that things will be ok, even if they aren’t the way you expected they would be.  Even if they aren’t the way you would like them to be.  This is something I struggle with- letting things be as they are.  In order to finish this blade I had to let it be as it was. Only then could I see how beautiful it really was.

This is after heat treat.  A file couldn’t touch it.  The bedframe delivered…   

I used white oak for the handle.  I love oak.  It has mass and it’s heavy.  It takes up space and lets you know that it’s there.  In Celtic lore, oak is a protector, wise and strong and a bridge to otherworldly places.  I wanted that for this blade.

This is a beautiful process and one of my favorites: 

  Roughing it out…The grain is starting to come out…there is a woodworkers’ trick where the wood is rubbed down lightly with water and allowed to sit- this brings the grain to prominence.There she is….

Brass rivets with a walnut danish oil, finished with tung oil.       


Always keep your faith.  This is the lesson of the Spellcaster.

Knifemaking: the supernatural, matters of faith, and the Spellcaster

/ ballardmidyette / Leave a comment

That is supernatural, whatever it be, that is either not in the chain of natural cause and effect, or which acts on the chain of cause and effect, in nature, from without the chain. [Horace Bushnell, “Nature and the Supernatural,” 1858]

Of late there have been lots of areas in my life that require a bit of faith.  I’ve spent a good amount of time looking into matters of faith and where my own faith lies.  What I’ve found is that even in the simplest things there is faith.  Getting in your car is an act of faith…because honestly every time you do you are stepping into a motorized death machine.  Our cars operate on thousands of tiny explosions, fueled by a fluid of combustible vapors that even static cling can ignite.  Then there are the people operating these machine- people facing hundreds of distractions from screaming children to phone calls to just plumb not paying attention.  What is it that allows one to arrive at their destination unscathed?  A well regulated auto industry?  The due diligence of traffic enforcement?  Our expert driving skills?  A combination of all three?  Yes.  But maybe there is something outside of the normal chain of cause and effect that could be at play.  Maybe arriving at your destination could be considered a blessing or a miracle, be it the grocery store, a wedding, a funeral, a job you love, a job you hate, or anyplace.  Maybe there should be a bit more celebration.  Maybe what we perceive as mundane is actually quite profound.  Maybe I am over-thinking all of this….
It is with this overactive frame of mind that I approached the Spellcaster.  She is made from a piece of carbon steel that came from a bedframe, which I think is a beautiful story.  Essentially she comes from the dream realm, something supernatural in it’s own right.

At work there are people of many different ethnicities and cultures- Sikhs, Sicillians, Greeks, Ghanaians, the whole spectrum.  The other month at work I was running an auction pickup at a job site and several customers with a large order showed up at 4:30p- precisely the time i was scheduled to leave.  These gentleman were devout Muslims- shrewd businessmen but very sweet people.  I was a bit cranky at having to stay late on a Friday.  That crankiness was exacerbated when at 5p two of the three gentleman slipped off to pray which substantially slowed the loading of their many wares.  I had to pause and after that pause I became aware of my crankiness and realized it might be because I felt there might be a lack of faith and devotion in my own life.  I was witness to a tremendous act of faith and devotion, even though they had slipped off to pray in a place unseen.
The Spellcaster is also a prayer and an act of faith, it’s namesake drawing inspiration from entities and beings that operate far outside of the normal chain of cause and effect.
This is pre-heat treat, no rivet holes, raw stages.
The lesson of the Spellcaster is to allow oneself to witness and experience acts of faith, not in spite of but within different religions or creeds.  This sharpens my own faith.