As an addition to Birgers excellent summary of our experience with Knut Dahl on the subject: "Uncle Knut sketches and explains..", I have tried to make notes on some of the more practical examples Knut mentioned during our talk.

The starting point for our discussion was some of the more formal rules and relations that has been used through the ages on the subject good design/good proportions. The easiest to understand and apply, and probably also the best known, is the golden section, which has a relation between the dimensions of 5 to 8. This relation is said to be found everywhere in nature, including the human body, and therefore most people will find the golden section very harmonic. Those points in a picture, that lies in the cross points of the golden section, will always draw special attention.

When we are talking about knives, one can use the ratios of the golden section to dimension the blade and the handle. In Scandinavian knives a blade of 7-8 cm is very common, and this will fit very well with a handle of 11-12 cm length. Furthermore one can use the ratio in the sheath, as the part covering the blade and the part covering the handle are approx. of the same length, and this will leave approx. 3/8 of the handle uncovered.

This naturally doesn’t mean you can’t make knives with other dimensions, but if you choose this starting point you will have a natural harmony, and this will make it easier to make a harmonic knife.

Another point that has great influence on your perception of lines and proportions, is balance. In a knife, the 2 parts on each side of the longitudinal axis must be in balance when you watch the knife in profile, and there must be a visual balance around the optical "centre of gravity" of the knife. Viewed from the edge or the spine, most knife makers will choose a symmetrical design, but if you choose an asymmetrical design, once again balance is an important subject.

Spirals are very powerful design elements, and they will often steal the scene ! As an exercise drawing spirals is a good idea, because when you are able to easily draw a harmonic spiral, you will have a good starting point to get strong control over your design work in general.

As Birger already pointed out in his summary, one will often find that "peace calls for unrest", and the other way round. This can mean that one will choose a powerful sheath for a more discrete knife, while a powerful knife will be better suited for a discrete sheath. Also when it comes to the decoration of the knife itself or the sheath itself, one can work with the "peace-unrest" parameter, and in this way create a more interesting overall design.

When you make a drawing of a knife, Knut strongly recommend to avoid big differences in the circumference of the knife, and especially one should avoid abrupt changes. Obeying this rule will make it easier to create harmonic knives. Knut Dahl always draws his knives independent of the sheath, this means he will design the knife first, and once this is done he will design a sheath that together with the knife will form a nice overall design. Often it will be a good idea to think of possible sheath designs during the design of the knife, and a certain design of the knife will definitely limit the possibilities in the sheath design.

Knut strongly suggest you try to work intuitively - don’t use your head to much ! It can be very difficult to "set yourself free", but it is a good way to work, if you want to come up with radically new designs, and it makes it possible to become complete independent of what you have done so far. As a general rule one can say that immersion and concentration pays of in the end !!!!

The problem of introducing a suitable finger guard on the knife without sacrificing the overall "lines", could be solved by introducing a thickening of the handle close to the blade (on the sides of the handle). This will leave a little edge, that can easily be found when you use the knife. Alternatively one could have a number of small grooves in the handle, and this will basically have the same effect. These element are a lot easier to integrate in the design, but of course they will not give your fingers the same amount of protection against sliding down on the edge during use.

These were some of the more practical examples of Knut Dahl’s design philosophy, but as it easily can be seen, there are no easy-to-apply rules of thump. The ability to see different shapes and lines is possible to train, and has to be trained during practical use. When you several times have "seen the light", eventually different elements will be a natural part of your design process. Often very diminutive details and changes will lift a knife from the group of good and ordinary knives to the extraordinary and remarkable masterpieces.