Jay Fisher - World Class Knifemaker
Rusty Russom started making knives in my Enchanted Spirits Studio years ago. As my son-in-law, he was exposed to many facets of the knife making conversation, and became versed in knife needs, interest, and design. Rusty has favored and made artistic conceptual types of knives for his own interests, and he has a keen eye, a steady hand, and tremendous drive. I could not ignore these extraordinary attributes, and convinced him to consider making some very special knives in collaboration with me.
Rusty brings two unique and very special sets of skills and experience to the knife making world.
Rusty is a professional chef, and manages and operates a busy restaurant in the downtown area of our state's largest and most active city. He designs, creates, prepares, executes, and delivers fine dishes to Albuquerque's most distinguished professional, government, and civic leaders and workforce, daily. As you can imagine, Rusty and I have had deep and detailed conversations about knives in general, and specifically, Chef's knives.
It is one thing to be an accomplished chef and culinary wizard, but to be a professional chef brings an entirely new perspective to the knife making conversation. Rusty has all of these attributes. Many people cook, many people are chefs, but few are professionals who make their living operating in a vital, distinctive, and daily position like Rusty has. People depend on him to provide delicious, inviting, and well-crafted meals, made daily from fresh ingredients, hand prepared. Rusty has solid and established concepts of what constitutes not only high performance professional knives in this field, but also exceptional fine pieces of culinary art. I absolutely can not wait to see the very special knives he comes up with in the studio!
In addition to being an accomplished professional chef, Rusty has a background in artistic knife design, an interest he's had since youth. Like many young people, he is knowledgeable and versed in modern computer use and interactive multi-platform entertainment. Rusty's interest in this digital technology realm extends beyond simple gaming and he is versed and proficient in FPS, RPG, RTS and MMORPG as well as higher level educational and video graphic formats. To those who understand these important and continuously emerging media forms, Rusty and I have started a program to bring many of the 2D edged weapons into three dimensions; in essence, to create conceptual digital weapons, stylized knife forms, and create them in reality. We call this Imagined Weapons Made Real.
In the computer and digital world, there are many creative individuals who design weapon forms for the characters and players, but, as computer designers, have little or no experience in the realities of a workable knife form. Since interest is high in this type of knife and weapon, I am often asked to make certain similar designs that are real knives, axes, edged weapons, or forms. Rusty has agreed to offer his services (in collaboration with me) to do this for clients. Like all of my knives, these collaborative pieces will be real, not knock-offs, copies, or novelty items, and will be designed with the digital influence, with careful attention to protect the copyrights and trademarks of the companies that have these forms in their media. This means that exact copies can not be made, and indeed, in order to make the piece in three dimensions and of significant quality, there usually must be substantial modifications to the designs. So, they will never be copies, only influences. This keeps all of the legalities in order, and allows us some creative freedom as knife makers and artists.
This is a very exciting prospect for me. As an older man, I believe it is good to have the younger influence in the studio in order for everyone to grow, both as established and as emerging artists. I'm looking forward to what Rusty and I build together in this exciting realm!
The knives Rusty creates are satin finished or bead blasted blades, clean and straight forward, without fancy embellishment, engraving, or exotic skin inlaid sheaths. Rusty offers serious, well-designed working chef's and digitally derived knives, custom made for the task and the individual client, with my skills and experience in collaboration. While Rusty does most of the work, I also use my hands on several critical steps to assure the knife is as high a quality as is possible to bear both our names on the blade.
For the fine chef's knives, please remember that these are not simply knives made by a knife maker, or knives made by a person who cooks; these are knives made by one of the top full-time professional knife makers and a full-time professional restaurant chef, in collaboration. I can't wait to see the new knives coming up!
The collaborative pieces Rusty and I are creating together will be made with an eye on expediting delivery, as my sole authorship knives are currently quoting 4-5 years to delivery. Our collaborative knives will be delivered in months instead of years.
Rusty is currently taking orders and making serious Chef's knives and digitally derived and conceptual knives, both for the professional and for the kitchen that requires orderly, useful, well thought-out, and extremely well-made and durable tools or the collector who wishes to own a real tactical knife from a digital form. The chef's knives are cleanly satin finished, without elaborate embellishment. The tactical knives are bead blasted. The knives are handmade with exotic and domestic hardwood handles, manmade handle materials, and high quality, corrosion resistant, martensitic stainless tool steel blades with extremely corrosion resistant fittings and accoutrements and accessories. Rusty is also creating fine display quality stands, holders, and blocks for these exceptional chef's knives, and the tactical combat knives will feature my proven kydex, aluminum, and stainless steel tension and locking knife sheaths with all the available accessories I offer. The chef's knives are designed and made with particular attention to the daily duty of the knife in a kitchen environment as the principle factor, and will surpass any knife commonly available in the culinary field today. The tactical conceptual and stylized knives are built to the same standards as my proven tactical designs, knives created with the input of the combat professional and used in the battlefield and rescue duty for decades.
The high quality and attention to detail in these knives are the same as if my hands alone have made them, with my guarantee of satisfaction. As with every knife that leaves the Enchanted Spirits Studio, I stand behind the details of construction, materials, geometry, durability, and service aspect of the knife experience. This has been my business practice for over thirty years, and will continue to be. I am committed to making these very distinctive and necessary fine knives with Rusty, and he is driven to make the best knife in the culinary and digitally inspired tactical knife field.
Though the delivery times are an estimate, Rusty will be able to deliver knives in two to four months. The delivery time is certain to increase, as I'm sure these knives will be very popular and sought out.
The price of the Russom-Fisher knife is comparable to a Jay Fisher exclusive knife, since it is the same quality knife that I would make if only my own hands had made it. The main difference in these knives is a delivery time of months, vs. years for a Jay Fisher exclusive knife project made to the same quality and finish.
Since my exclusive knives have regularly and significantly appreciated over time, I expect that these collaborative knives are destined to do the same. The Russom-Fisher collaborative knives are created in-house, together, and there will be a limited amount of these very special knives in the world. I fully expect that they will be highly sought-after and will appreciate considerably since both our names (and hands) are on them.
I believe that Rusty will be continually creatively pursuing these types of knife, as well as refining chef's and digitally inspired knives beyond the current available models. If you have a specific chef's, kitchen, prep, or specialized service knife for the culinary field in mind, or if you have a knife idea from a media entertainment form that you want to have in the real world, contact me and we'll discuss it.
Yes! The first collaborative is finished and sold; this is a great knife that will lead the way for more projects to come. Please take the time to look over "Arcadia." Rusty and I have designed and are creating new and exiting projects, and will post them soon. I'll add a link list as knife projects are completed and the site is updated.
You have read on different areas of the site that I do not teach knife making or the tradecraft of knives. This is true, with few exceptions, and Rusty is one of them. Rusty is a beloved family member, a caring father, professional chef, and outstanding man. I'm honored that he has taken an interest in the other side of the knife, the side that creates what he uses in his culinary field. He has great insights, clever and unique perspective, and serious drive. I am honored that he is creating with me and excited about our collaborative works! Thanks to Rusty for bringing knife making into his life, and thank you for supporting what we love with your ideas, orders, support, and patronage!
--Jay Fisher
