Scagel research

[Buddy Thomason]

Mace,
I posed your question to Dr. Jim Lucie, ranking Scagel expert and this was his reply: "I don't have any idea if Bill ever made a knife like his kris--- who knows what he did in all his years of smithing. I do have an unfinished blade of his that very much resembles his so-called kris." Maybe Jim will let me snag a picture of the unfinished blade to which he refers. I'd like to see it myself! However, I did find this unusual unfinished Scagel blade from Dr. Lucie's collection. He and I speculated as to what function(s) it might serve, but without any certainty. That's one of the neat things about Scagel. His creativity was essentially boundless and definitely not predictable. Best wishes, Buddy

[Mace]

Buddy,
I tried to email Dr. Lucie reg. some Scagel info but must of had a bad email address. Seeing that you talk with him maybe you could ask. I am wondering what kind of info/ books might be available on Scagel....other than the booklet " Scagel the man and his knives" I was wondering if Dr. Lucie might have a book in the works, seeing how he is the authority on Scagel and all. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say we want to know more about this man and his knives.
Reg: the unfinished knife:::: He WAS a smith, maybe that blade was never meant to be finished and he was just playing. We may never know. Seems that I learn something about him every few days. Someone should make a nice book about this man SOON!
Mace

[hammerdownnow]

Mace, You would have had a blast up at the Scagel expo. Meeting Buddy and Dr. Lucie and all the guys in the ABS was a fantastc experence. We all talked Scagel from dawn till dark everyday. Even the locals came out with their family heirlooms to show. I managed to procure a 2x2x20" piece of hardwood ends waxed and put up to cure by old Bill himself.
Here is a great shot of the Scagel shop taken by Buddy on that beautiful weekend.
Buddy Thomason image

Buddy, maybe that was the sea ration can opener he was making for when he finally made it to sea.

[Coutel]

It does look like an old fashioned tin opener...I remember my grandparents had something similiar in shape.

Kevin.

[Chuck Burrows]

Buddy-
That Scagel stamp sure looks a bit like the knife you recently posted in the photo contest - the knife's not as wavy but there's definitely a similarity
Here's a lonk to the pic for reference
http://www.ckdforums.com/showthread....threadid=16827

[Buddy Thomason]

Chuck,
That's a good point--there is a similarity! I've done a little research in the past couple of days about the "kris." I'm quoting from an article in the 1985 (yes, '85) Dec. issue of The Blade Magazine, pp. 24-29 and 60, "The Kris" by Van Waterford: "The kris is the link between its owner and his ancestors. It is the form, the sacrifice presented at its forging and compliance with the rules in its shaping that gives a 'soul' to the kris, and links its owner to his ancestors." And, "Legend describes a kris rattling in the owner's sheath to warn him of approaching danger, while other stories relate how an owner's kris leaped from its sheath to fight for the owner." (a la Frodo's sword glowing when Orcs are near!) And, "The number of waves....is always odd. In Javanese magic (island of Java, Indonesia) even is feminine.....odd is masculine." Etc., etc., etc.--this is a fascinating article!
SO, technically, Scagel's "kris" is not really a kris, per se. I don't know how or why he adopted it but it is known that he sailed all over the world as a young man in the British Merchant Marines AND I have a photo of a painting he did (yes, he was a painterly dude as well!) of what is obviously a South Pacific Island with native dug-out out-rigger boats, turquoise lagoon, waterfall and lush vegetation--very suggestive of, well, Java! So who knows. I'll try to post that photograph here but it may take a while as my my hard drive at home just went up in smoke! Fortunatley, most of my images are also stored on CD-ROM.
**Congrats to Chuck on his winning image from this past week's CKD photo contest! See it here: http://www.ckdforums.com/showthread....threadid=16845

[Mace]

Seeing that we were on the subject thought I would put this up for you guys to look at. This is one of two kris blades that I forged out at my intro to bladesmithing class at the ABS school in Arkansas two years ago. I guess I was a little ambitious in class, my instructors(Roger Massey and Mike Conner) just kind of shook their heads at me.
Mace


Photo is by Coop. He took it last year at the New York forging and knife expo.........THANKS COOP!!!!