Sharp beauty

The visitors of Ukraine’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry were shown the range of products made in Ukraine, Russia, Dagestan, and Viet­nam: from clasp knives to sabers and krisses. There was also the so-called “Artisan Town” where craftsmen sharpened knives’ blades on special stones, carved wooden handles, and sew scabbards in full view of the visitors.

Few visitors dared to take their place. However, the exhibition of krisses “Cold Arms of the Malaya Archipelago” presented by a private collector gathered quite a lot of viewers. The displayed krisses were manufactured by Indonesian artisans in the 18th-19th centuries. Unlike traditional knives, they have wavy blades and their handles are made of valuable wood or precious metals, often in the form of animals.

“This collection is unique because Indonesian krisses, especially those that are 100-200 years old are not common in Ukraine,” told us Artem De­revianko, the owner of the collection. “Modern artisans may 6 only wish to have the skill and quality commanded by the craftsmen who made these Krisses. We have brought krisses from the islands of Java, Mali, and Sumatra to display them here. They differ from one another in the form of their handles. Javanese knives are decorated with precious metals, while Polynesian daggers have figures of gods and the ones from Sumatra are often ornamented with a stylized figure of a parrot or a man.”

Following their predecessors, some Ukrainian artisans also use jewelry to decorate their knives. For example, artisan Yuri Kulbida, who has made custom-made knives for over 20 years, uses emeralds, diamonds, silver, and white gold to decorate them. Consequently, this piece of art is not cheap: prices range from $300 to $15,000 and even more. The blades are made from Damascus steel. As Kulbida explained, it combines hard and soft metals, which makes the knife bendable, springy, and hard at the same time. The handles are made from African wood, which he buys at fairly high prices. For example, a cubic meter of ebony costs 220,000 hryvnias. But he does not complain: there is high demand for his products among Ukrainians. And Kulbida’s collection includes virtually all kinds of knives, even one that can cut glass.

“I made my first knife when I was just 14 years old,” continued Kulbida. “As a former motorbike racer, I had always been fond of metal. And today I combine my hobby with my job, and I am satisfied. I was one of the first among my colleagues who received a license to manufacture knives from law-enforcement agencies. Today it is not difficult to have a business like that, the only complication is that you have to take your knives to the Forensic Science Institute of Ukraine: they will check if it belongs to the category of cold steel; this procedure precedes the issuance of a permission to sell them.

In addition to ready-made knives, the visitors were able to watch the process of their manufacturing: how handles are carved from wood, how blades are sharpened, or how scabbards are engraved. For instance, Ruslan Zuyev, Ho­nored Worker of the Republic of Dagestan, was engraving a figure of a horse on a metal handle with a burin. He said that he was making the handle for a battle saber. After en­graving the pattern, he polished the handle so as to make the figure of the horse black and preserve the natural metallic color of the rest of the handle.

In order to get not only men but also women interested in the knife exhibition, the organizers invited chefs from one of Kyiv’s Japanese restaurants. They offered a master class on making sushi to show the importance of having a variety of knives in one’s kitchen. The chefs cut salmon for sushi with one knife: first, the fish was cut along the spine and then the fillet was cut into long rectangular slices, which is impossible, according to the chefs, to achieve without using a special knife. A different knife was used to cut the vegetables and yet another one-to slice the prepared sushi. All the knives needed to make sushi were displayed at the exhibition.