Turning the World to Dust: The Maui Knife
By Matthew Parkinson
The world seems to be in trouble lately. I try not to watch the news too often – for the most part there isn’t much I can do about any of it anyway, so why depress myself? I do keep aware of world events, I just try not to obsess over them. Tragedy seems to be endemic to the human condition, yet the human spirit is such that we are always hurt and appalled by the pain of others. Sometimes we can help, sometimes there is nothing to be done, and sometimes we are moved to do something.
So it was for me after the wildfires in Maui that decimated Lahaina. I was inspired while watching a video of the devastation, and an image of Lahaina from the water some distance out stuck in my mind. In the image, the volcanic mountains of Maui frame the sky over a tranquil water line. My mind saw that image as a damascus pattern, and I instantly knew how I could make that shape. I proposed to do so – make a knife from it, then auction it off, donating a part of the proceeds to help with the recovery from the fires.
Turning the World to Dust is Matthew Parkinson’s bimonthly column on knifemaking, both the business and the personal. You can read his December column in its entirety below: