Codger_64
Moderator
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2004
- Messages
- 61,711
Very interesting train of thought and informative. Staying with that line of thinking, these would then be the "Neanderthals" of the evolutionary chain of scrimshaw knives.
Exactly. And (due to familiarity and prejudice) I refer to the early Camillus projects such as the Babe Ruth figurals made by Camillus bearing a likeness of his signature and a baseball. Albert Baer personally secured Ruth's endorsement contract for these. And then there were the cartoon theme imprinted knives, Buck Rogers, Dick Tracy, etc. And a variety of "Scout knives", one of which had the morse code imprinted on the pile side.
But... it was Giorgianni who brought about the idea for Schrade to issue "limited edition" knives with art for art's sake, first with faux scrimshaw of the sea, then of American wildlife, then of every imaginable theme... space exploration, American history, classic cars, dog breeds, native American heritage, etc.
I can easily imagine how a man who was first and foremost a creative artist would get bored to tears doing production graphic arts, mostly text, logos and blade etches. In another earlier life I was one. I did the faux tooled leather and woodgrain printed art for the interior door trim of the 1970's Chevy and GMC trucks, gauge faces for Catapillar tractors, control panels for stoves and toaster ovens. It was fun and challenging at first but quickly became boreing. Thus I became a patent illustrator and prototype builder where original creative art was expected.