Blacksmith Viktor Kuznetsov

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

With all the fame of his sharp and durable knives in Russia and abroad, one can often hear questions: when and where was Viktor Kuznetsov born? The blacksmith's biography is simple and intricate at the same time. Viktor Vasilyevich Kuznetsov was born in 1947. His small homeland is Eastern Siberia. It took a long time to go to blacksmithing.

No fuss

School, army, university (Department of Oriental Studies, Department of Chinese), life in a huge, noisy city… As it turned out, all these and other stages of human existence led the Siberian to the main thing - the forge in a small village near Mtsensk. It is there, far from the bustle of the people, without a TV, with limited access to the Internet, for more than forty years Viktor Kuznetsov, one of the best Russian specialists in hand forging, has been living and working. It happens that he comes to Moscow to visit his daughter, checks the mail.

Self-development for him is reading up to a hundred historical and philosophical books annually. Shares the teachings of Lao Tzu. At the very beginning, it contains advice to those who want to truly open their hearts to people: “Leave the city, sit closer to the earth …” Wise teaching is considered not a religion, but a philosophy of life.

Purity is the god of metal

People's interest in hard patterned steel for blades - damask steel - has existed for many centuries. The voluntary hermit Viktor Kuznetsov became interested in the old craft in the 70s.

I got the first information about elastic steel with an unusual internal texture ("pattern") from P. P. Anosov's book "About damask steel". Kuznetsov learned once and for all the important postulate of the mining engineer, metallurgist scientist Pavel Anosov - pure iron is needed to smelt damask steel, it is the most malleable. Purity is the god of metal.

Blacksmithing is first and foremost a practice. Viktor Vasilievich began working with metal in 1985. He was prompted to action by a simple chisel - a tool for woodworking. Kuznetsov needed it, and he went to the railway forge (PC).

The blacksmith's worker couldn't make a chisel, but he showed Victor how metal is heated, forged, hardened. In the future, Kuznetsov became an excellent master of making various chisels, including those for creating miniatures and netsuke.

Go to the bathhouse

The first chisels Kuznetsov heated in a sauna stove, forged on a rail stump. Later, he had an anvil and tongs. This blacksmith's tool lived out its life in an abandoned collective farm forge, but, installed in the Kuznetsov farmstead, found a "second wind". The gas furnace was located under a canopy, which did not allow it to be used in winter.

Then the blacksmith built a small forge with an area of 12.5 square meters and installed a small coal furnace in it. VictorVasilyevich claims that he works only on charcoal that he himself burnt. This natural biofuel was used by our ancestors.

One day, a blacksmith rushed to a difficult goal - to make excellent steel, the best in the world. He believes that he is close to achieving his goal. Swing too high? Kuznetsov never recognized the low bar. He says that transcendence stimulates a person more to action, only it contributes to true professional (and personal) growth. The Siberian works selflessly, does not take days off: if not in the forge, then at the Vernissage.

Perfect simplicity

Experience is the son of difficult mistakes. Step by step, Viktor Kuznetsov accumulated skill. There were fewer and fewer defective chisels, then there were none at all. Blacksmithing has become familiar (and at the same time always new). For the next fifteen years, Kuznetsov learned to make knives: sharp, durable, uncomplicated in shape.

Artistic forging did not please him. Although the blacksmith went to the heights of skill, including through decorativeness, to which he quickly lost interest. Simplicity, as you know, is the ultimate limit of experience. Any line distorted even by a micron is striking. Viktor Kuznetsov's knives are elegant, often too simple, but they cut perfectly.

Kuznetsov made the first smelting of damask steel in 2004, having twenty years of blacksmithing experience. By the beginning of 2013, he had made 830 heats, analyzing each one in detail. Viktor Vasilievich wrote almost 30 articles on blacksmithing,conducts seminars, has students. He took the laurels of the winner of the championship and the championship of Russia in rope cutting. Developed his own knife testing system (“in an adult way”).

Testing knives like adults

Strength testing of edged weapons has existed since the time of Peter the Great, there are test standards in the forensic center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (for hardness, deflection, etc.). Kuznetsov developed his own standards for cutting properties (a kind of OTK). Considers the strength test to be the most important.

The main buyers of Kuznetsov's knives are hunters. The product is in demand among foreigners. All consumers highly appreciate the work of the unique "technical control department". It is effective, there is practically no return. Most of the reviews indicate that the Moscow-Mtsensk blacksmith Viktor Kuznetsov makes damask steel of decent quality.