It’s time for the last round of 🎶Q and Ansø🎶 this year. This question came from an Instagram follower. Let’s dive in.
Q: What designer, if any, had the greatest influence on your own work?
ANSØ: Over the early years of my making I was influenced by a large number of makers, mainly through the books I could find in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Knives Annual was an important source. My very first knives were heavily influenced by David Boye, as his book Step-By-Step Knifemaking, You Can Do It was the one in which I could most clearly see methods that felt accessible to me.
In later years, and especially when I moved into folder making, Bob Terzuola became the main inspiration. Not in terms of design, but in how to actually build folders—and not least how to build a shop around folder making.
Since starting to build folders and turning this into a career, I have tried to stay clear of direct design inspiration from any maker. That said, no one lives in a bubble, and if I were to mention a couple of names, two stand above the rest: Ken Onion and Michael Walker. I have the utmost respect for both, and their design ethos inspired me greatly in my early folder-making days.
I have been fortunate to visit the shops of Bob, Ken, and Michael, and if anything, that has inspired me the most. In the end, I believe design is only fully understood by the designer itself—but seeing how and where a knife is made tells more than any picture of a finished knife ever can. That is where I have found the most inspiration.
Q: What designer, if any, had the greatest influence on your own work?
ANSØ: Over the early years of my making I was influenced by a large number of makers, mainly through the books I could find in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Knives Annual was an important source. My very first knives were heavily influenced by David Boye, as his book Step-By-Step Knifemaking, You Can Do It was the one in which I could most clearly see methods that felt accessible to me.
In later years, and especially when I moved into folder making, Bob Terzuola became the main inspiration. Not in terms of design, but in how to actually build folders—and not least how to build a shop around folder making.
Since starting to build folders and turning this into a career, I have tried to stay clear of direct design inspiration from any maker. That said, no one lives in a bubble, and if I were to mention a couple of names, two stand above the rest: Ken Onion and Michael Walker. I have the utmost respect for both, and their design ethos inspired me greatly in my early folder-making days.
I have been fortunate to visit the shops of Bob, Ken, and Michael, and if anything, that has inspired me the most. In the end, I believe design is only fully understood by the designer itself—but seeing how and where a knife is made tells more than any picture of a finished knife ever can. That is where I have found the most inspiration.
From when I visited the Michael Walker shop. Showing Bob Terzuola, Lucas Burnly, Eddie Baca and Michael Walker.
