Knife engraved with Dore's illustrations for Dante's Inferno

This gorgeous knife is elaborately engraved with scenes replicating Dore's illustrations to Dante's Inferno; I'm not clear on whether this is a knife or a razor (which is technically a knife, I know) — the forum is called "Straight Razor Forum," the poster calls it a "knife," and the piece does not resemble straight razors or pocket knives of my experience. I'm sure that when I check this post tomorrow morning (it's queued up to go live after I go to bed in London) the comments will have settled the question in excruciating detail.

The theme was Dante's Inferno and the images are based on Dore's illustrations for the book. The toughest part was that I had to alter the images to make them fit the format of the windows. I had to make the altered images still recognizable as the classic Dore illustrations.

The "frames" are sculpted and the images are bulino engraved. The scenes on the hidden panels were also bulino engraved. The knife was made by Joe Kious of Kerrville, TX.


Default Dante's Inferno theme engraving

(via Making Light)