William Gibson is one of my all-time favourite authors -- like with Clive Barker, Peter Watts or Thomas Ligotti, it was love from first page.
Recently I read his "All Tomorrow Parties" and it caught my attention, that two knives were very significant to the plot and the mood of the book. I'm yet to draw the second one, but here's Chevette's boot knife.
And an abstract to illustrate it:
"Here," he says, "I'll show you something." Opening a cabinet.
Brings out a sheath knife, greenish handles inlaid with copper abstracts. Draws it from the waxed brown saddle leather. Blade of Damascus steel, tracked with dark patterns.
Brings out a sheath knife, greenish handles inlaid with copper abstracts. Draws it from the waxed brown saddle leather. Blade of Damascus steel, tracked with dark patterns.
The knife of Chevette's memories, its grip scaled with belt-ground segments of phenolic circuit board.
"I saw that made," she says, leaning forward.
"Forged from a motorcycle drive chain. Vincent 'Black Lightning,' 1952. Rode that in England. It was a good forty years old too, then. Said there wasn't ever a bike to match it. Kept the chain till he found this maker." Passes the knife to her. Five inches of blade, five inches of handle. "Like you to have it."
Chevette runs her finger along the flat of the blade, the crocodile pattern of light and dark steel that had been formed as the links were beaten out. "I was thinking about this before, Fontaine. Today. How we went to where the smith worked. Burned coke in an old coffee can."
"Yes. I've seen it done." Hands her the sheath.
"But you need to sell this stuff." Tries to hand it back. "It wasn't for sale," he says. "I was keeping it for you."
And if you google the knifes, welded from motorc hains, you'll see, that I made a mistake with the blade's pattern. So I had to draw it on a separate sheet of paper and paste it in Photoshop for the knife to look as it should. There:
