Van Barnett
Raven — Open
One of just twelve Ravens Van Barnett ever made — and, like its eleven siblings, unlike any of them. The blade is a three-inch hawkbill in iridescent mosaic Damascus, its talon curve answering the bird engraved across the bolster.
Sole authorship throughout: the Damascus, the engraving, the carved handle threaded with 24-karat gold, the gold thumb stud and lanyard hook. One pair of hands, start to finish.
- Model Raven · One of 12, each unique
- Blade Iridescent Mosaic Damascus · Hawkbill
- Blade Length 3″ (incl. choil)
- Lock Lockback
- Overall, Open 7″
- Weight 8.4 oz
- Engraving Hand-Cut Raven Bolster
- Inlay 24K Gold · Thumb Stud · Lanyard Hook
- Authorship Sole — Van Barnett
Mosaic Damascus · Engraved Bolster
Handle · Gold Thumb Stud
Carved Handle · Gold Inlay · Mosaic Damascus Spine
Raven Engraving · Bolster
Van Barnett
St. Albans, West Virginia · Full-time since the early 1980s
Van Barnett has been making knives full time since the early 1980s, working out of St. Albans, West Virginia. He is entirely self-taught — he picked up the craft straight out of high school, drawn not to knives specifically but to what knifemaking offered an artist: a medium where design, metallurgy, carving, engraving, and goldsmithing converge in a single object held in the hand.
His early ascent was striking. In 1997, as a probationary member at his first Knifemakers Guild Show, Barnett won the W.W. Cronk Award for Best of Show — the first probationary member in the show's history to do so. By 2003 he had been voted into the Art Knife Invitational, twenty-five makers worldwide, where the only path to admission is an existing member's resignation or death.
Barnett is a sole-authorship maker in the strictest sense: every element of every knife — the Damascus, the engraving, the carving, the gold — comes from one pair of hands. No exceptions.
“Designs from the mind with a breath of life from the soul.”
Handle Carving · Gold Line Inlay
Raven — Iridescent Damascus
Closed · Handle Profile
Gold Hook · Lanyard
Raven — Open