An expulsion of hot air (or pixels, whatever) entitled "Knives as a Microcosm of Life, or Life as a Metaphor for Knives."
Art is not a bad word. It doesn't need to exist apart from science, either. To me it just connotes something brought into existence with the intention of being aesthetically pleasing or at least stimulating. A thing can be very practical or useful and be artistic, or may indeed be stimulating by its sublime pointlessness.
This debate is as wide as the range of people who take part in it. Some people seem to do fine with science, atheism, find joy in the light of pure reason. Others apparently do better with a spiritual outlook on life, be it organized religion or a personal agnosticism. I lean more toward the former, but enjoy the romantic past, meaning, and symbology that surrounds blacksmithing and that's one of the things that makes this craft continually inspiring and right for me.
People in general like forms that please their eyes, be it the symmetry of an attractive face, the flared fenders on a car design, or the BOLD and ZESTY lettering on a slickly packaged product at the store. Art and aesthetics so permeate life everywhere that it's difficult to imagine where, if ever they end. Spartan design concepts in architecture or industry are but another aesthetic, a subjective appeal on some level to those who may buy or use it. Even the most purely functional objects will have some concession to visual appeal, rounded corners, a uniform finish, casting seams ground flush.
A blade could have the most metallurgically sound blade for the projected use, have superior geometry, even be uniformly finished for corrosion resistance, but if it's ugly to a person that person won't buy it. Or, that blade could be mounted with a stainless steel guard, which on the face has a scratch. That scratch won't hurt a THING as far a use or durability, yet even the most aesthetically apathetic person will reject it in favor of the same knife without a scratch.
Visual appeal may range to the opposite extreme- a knife may be made and embellished with extreme value on beauty, yet still be metallurgically sound. The beauty achieved will be subjective- not everyone will care for it. But this hypothetical detractor, if a person who knows knives and their use, after testing it side by side with a knife that looks great to them but has a pot metal blade, will take the knife that while not personally appealing will cut through rope repeatedly.
A long and tortuous way of saying that art and functionality are inextricably intertwined, and nowhere more than in the field of knives. That's why they are so challenging and rewarding to try to make well.
Jeez people, life would be joyless and not worth living without art, music, literature. And without technology we'd possibly be extinct. Figure it out...
