Jimmy Chin is putting a man's passion for steel into action.
Inside a small tin-roofed workshop along in , , Jimmy Chin has been grinding a forged blade for hours. "The key to perfection is symmetry," he says. "The tolerance is too tight for power tools or even computer-aided equipment, so it has to be done little by little, by hand."
Chin is the only Chinese knife maker who has been certified by the American Bladesmith Society (ABS) as a Journeyman Smith. The ABS was founded by three knife makers in 1976 to preserve and promote the art of bladesmithing, specifically forged blades. It has set qualifying levels for its members who are working bladesmiths in order to earn the status of Journeyman Smith and then Master Smith. Currently, there are only about 200 Journeyman Smiths and 100 Master Smiths worldwide. "In layman's term, the ABS Journeyman Smith stamp is like a master's degree and Master Smith is like a doctorate," says Liu Yih-ming, a collector and university professor of materials science.
Becoming a bladesmith, however, was purely accidental for Chin. Born in , Chin moved to at the age of 20 with his family, where they lived for three years before moving to the . During his years in the two countries, Chin worked variously as a warehouse manager, chef, gardener and ranch worker. "Knives were an important tool in most of those jobs so I had to know something about them and be sophisticated in using them," he says. "But with all the options in the market, it had never crossed my mind that someday I'd be making them."
Chance Meeting
Something happened toward the end of 2003 that was to change Chin's life. At the time, his family had just decided to move to since his parents thought it would be a good place for retirement, and his younger brother thought that it was a market with a lot of business opportunities for young people. Chin, however, did not like it at all. "It must be the anti-communism education I grew up with," he says. "I really don't think anything good can happen in a place governed by communists."
Chin decided to return to and work with his friends to set up an import-export business. Before returning, Chin visited a knife shop at the request of one of his friends to bring back some hand-forged blades for a collection. He chatted with the owner a little and asked if they had any handmade knives in stock. "The guy looked at me and said in a condescending tone: 'Doesn't have any of its own custom knife makers?'" Chin recalls. "It was true that didn't have any, but why the tone? I would've broken his nose if he hadn't had all those knives by his side."
Leaving the shop without buying anything, Chin went home and searched the Internet to see if there were other sources for hand-forged blades. By accident, he found the ABS, which, working with , operates the of Bladesmithing in . So Chin postponed his plans to return to and entered the bladesmithing school in February 2004.
Jimmy Chin hopes to make "museum-level" blades that are valued for their artistry to complement the many collections focusing on historical value alone. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)
Students at the school can select individual courses if they choose to, but Chin, knowing little about the craft, decided to go for the complete program that covers everything from steel properties and heat treating to the making of handles, guards and sheaths. Chin performed very well at the school. One of the "intern" blades he forged even won an ABS cutting competition in October, 2004. When he had time, he would also visit individual master smiths, staying with them for a few days to pick up some of their techniques. "I'd never been so serious about learning," Chin says. "I guess I still couldn't get over the shop owner's attitude, and wanted to go back someday and impress him with blades hand-forged by a Taiwanese smith."
Only 10 to 15 percent of ABS students eventually go on to work as knife makers. But, when Chin completed all the courses and returned to toward the end of 2004, he set up his workshop and made up his mind to become a professional bladesmith. He never went back to that store in the . Actually, he is a little thankful to the shop owner, who was the reason for Chin's embarking upon a career he really enjoys.
Ripple Effect
Liu Yih-ming, who has been collecting knives for 25 years and has a handsome collection of hand-forged blades, including several of Chin's, thinks that Chin's return had a tremendous influence on the local knife-making scene. "Knife-making is nothing new, because the knife is one of the oldest tools and every place has its blacksmiths to make styles that fit local needs at an acceptable price," he says. "Chin shares the craftsmanship of the ABS school, which differs from that of the neighborhood blacksmith in that it's not only for the making of a functional tool, but also for lifting knife-making to an art form."
An example is the making of , or pattern-welded, steel blades that are made out of several types of steel and iron slices, which are hot-forged together to form a billet. The billet is folded to form the desired layers and then dipped in an acid bath to create the patterns, which are decided by the initial arrangement of the different steels and the number of layers. Individual makers have their own formulas for making these kinds of blades. Before Chin brought back the technique, Liu says, Taiwanese smiths made their blades with a single piece of steel. "There's not much difference function-wise between blades made of a single piece of steel and steel," Chin says. "It's mostly about aesthetics."
Test of Strength
In addition to Chin's sharing what he had learned at the ABS school with local makers, the bladesmith was also preparing for the ABS Journeyman Smith test. "It's like a certificate of a knife maker's knowledge and skill," Chin says. "And of course, it helps a little with the market price." In 2007, he presented five of his blades made of carbon steel to be tested.
Different designs of Chin's Damascus blades. (Photo by Huang Chung-hsin)
The first part of the test is the performance test for which the blade must cut a free-hanging rope to test the edge geometry and sharpness, and then chop wood to test edge toughness. After this the blade is used to shave hair to demonstrate retention of the sharp edge. The blade must not show any chipping or damage throughout the process. It then goes through the bending test in which a blade must be able to be bent 90 degrees without breaking, in order to show the applicant's ability to heat treat the blade properly. After passing the performance test, the applicant needs to submit blades of different designs for the evaluation of their workmanship, balance and fit and finish.
Chin passed the tests with flying colors. A Journeyman Smith stamp, however, did not bring much reward financially. Working 13 to 14 hours a day, Chin can complete a blade in two weeks to one month. Priced between NT$20,000 and $50,000 (US$600 and $1,500) depending on the materials and design, these blades are more likely to be displayed on the shelf of a collector instead of found in the hands of a chef, which is exactly the problem. "A kitchen knife is a necessary tool but a hand-forged custom knife is not," Chin says. "Knife collectors are the minority among all types of collectors and custom knife collectors the minority among knife collectors."
Facing the same small market, Chen Yuan-fan, a Taiwanese swordsmith and a friend of Chin's, has been sharing his "business approach" with the knife maker. Chen thinks that to expand the market, a bladesmith needs to be recognized not only by knife enthusiasts but also by art collectors, and one of the ways is by participating in and winning local craft competitions. Chin, however, has no interest in this approach. "There are only competitions for metal arts but not specifically for bladesmithing in , so how are you going to judge between apples and oranges?" Chin asks. "Besides, I don't think there are enough people here who are qualified to be the judges of bladesmithing."
From a bladesmith's point of view, Chin is not too happy about 's knife laws either. The law, for example, does not allow for the making, sale or ownership of daggers, which are identified as a weapon. Making daggers, however, is the best test of a bladesmith's skills as they require perfect symmetry and are a favorite item among collectors. "Read the news and you'll know that the most commonly used weapon is a kitchen knife," he says. "The weapon is the person holding it, not the knives or the daggers." Paradoxically, while daggers are not allowed, short swords, which are basically the same thing, are perfectly legal. Moreover, whether a blade is considered a dagger or a short sword is pretty much up to individual law enforcement officers, since it is not spelled out in the law.
Man of Steel
There is reason to be optimistic, however. Liu Yih-ming says that in the past, sources for knife-related knowledge and collecting high-end factory or custom knives were very limited for local collectors. Thanks to the popularity of the Internet, collectors can now easily place online orders with a few clicks and enthusiasts can learn a lot from several knife discussion boards. Liu believes the number of 's knife collectors is growing. "A passion for steel is just like that for a sports car," he says. "It's in the blood of a man."
As one of the few that can actually translate this passion into action, Chin plans to apply Western techniques to forge traditional Chinese swords and other weapons--creating some "museum-level" blades, as he calls them. "'s museums collect blades for their historical value," he says. "They have totally ignored that there is also an artistic value in this functional metal art."
But the museums will have to wait for a while. Right now, Chin is preparing for the ABS Master Smith test in May, which is basically the same test as that for Journeyman Smiths, except that the tested blades need to be made of Damascus steel and one of the blades must be a dagger. So late at night, under the tin roof of his shabby forge, Chin continues at his work, repeating the same grinding motion, in search of that perfect symmetry.
Write to Jim Hwang at jim@mail.gio.gov.tw