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Engine
Room Watch Leads to the Art of Knife-Making
Richard Sunerton’s
fascination with knives began in his youth. After seeing the movie,
“The life and times of James Bowie”, Richard wanted to make a Bowie
knife so he set out to do it. Later on, during his working career in
the merchant marine as an engineer, he perfected the art of
knife-making, while watch-keeping in ships’ engine rooms.
Richard Sunerton’s knives are custom-made. He makes a variety of
knives: Kitchen and, Chef’s knives, Bowie, Camping, and Skinning and,
Hunter’s knives. Owning a Sunerton kitchen knife has become quite
popular in the Laurentians. Richard uses stainless steel for the blades
and materials such as hardwood, antlers, horn, and brass for the
handles. Richard explains the rudiments of knife-making and emphasizes
that he himself has to be pleased with the shape of the knife, before he
presents to the customer. It is obvious that he loves what he does,
thus it is fascinating to hear him talk while continuing to polish the
knife he is working on.
Richard
Sunerton’s
workshop is situated next to a renovated, over-100-year old, farm house,
amidst a beautiful garden, sloping towards a beaver pond. Richard will
be giving demonstrations during Route des Arts 2006.
Spotlight on:
Richard Sunerton: Knife-maker. Published in Main Street 2004
Richard Sunerton has a “life-long fascination with
knives.” He says: “One of my earliest memories… is of persuading
my mother to buy me a pocket knife, which my father immediately
confiscated.” Later on, Richard was impressed with the
Bowie knife featured in the movie about the life and times of
James Bowie….so he decided to make one and, “a knife-maker was born.”
Richard Sunerton
maintains that he is not a conventional artist. However, when
you speak to him about his creations, a
real Artist comes
through. The creation of a knife is a process that involves a
lot of skill, patience and love.
What’s important to Richard is: “To see
the knife emerging….. until I come up with a pleasing shape.” He
sometimes waits a day or two before deciding he likes “the shape of
the whole knife.”
Richard studied mechanical engineering and, went
straight to the merchant marine. He says: “During my years
as a marine engineer, I have been able to pursue this hobby while
watch-keeping in ships’ engine rooms with machine shops available.”
He explains: “The blades are
ground from high carbon stainless steels (ATS 34 and 440C), polished
to a 600-grit finish, and heat-treated to 58-60 on the Rockwell Scale.
"For the handles, I use a
variety of materials such as native and exotic hardwoods, stag
antlers, buffalo horn, brass and, aluminum. The knife is
polished with extra fine steel wool.”
There is a variety of custom-made
knives, Kitchen and, Chef’s knives, Bowie, Camping, Skinning and, Hunter’s
knives.
He explains: “it takes two people to
make a knife, one to make it and, one to tell him when to stop.”
The idea that people might think the knife is too good for use,
horrifies him….thus the knife is not brought to a high polish.
He definitely wants his knives used!
“I like to think that I make good,
strong working knives that have a certain elegance.”
Richard himself wears a knife on his belt
(which he made about 20 years ago)
and, he shows it with pride! The knife
and sheath, have taken on a patina with age and, this is
exactly how it should be. (The sheath is made to
fit the knife individually.)
Richard Sunerton makes the art of
knife-making fascinating because he shares knife-making with such
gusto. He derives pleasure from his customers’ reactions when
they experience a “spontaneous joy”, surprised at their idea of a
knife transformed into an actual knife.
I even got a lesson on proper knife
sharpening. Thank you Richard!
You will also be swept away when you
see Richard’s demonstration next summer during Route des Arts
2004.
Colours
and dimensions artwork may be slightly different from the original.
