Steve Shackleford

Editor’s note: The following originally appeared in the December 1997 issue of BLADE. Find more from BLADE‘s extensive archive in this download.

Brian Lyttle’s Blade Get Top Billing in Survival Epic, The Edge

Could this be THE movie where a knife will come across as what it truly is, an inanimate yet indispensable tool, instead of a living, breathing, killing demon that irrational crusaders and inept politicians constantly point to as the root of all evil? Let’s hope so.

Meanwhile, The Edge, starring award-winning actor Anthony Hopkins as a man trying to survive in harsh environs with the help of his knife and his ingenuity, may be a movie worth watching not only for the way he employs his blade but because it’s just fine entertainment.

One thing’s certain: Canadian knifemaker Brian Lyttle will be much more than just an interested observer because he made the “steel star” of the film and even appears in the flick as an extra.

The Design

The knife is a large folding hunter designed for the applications to which Hopkins puts it in the movie.

“It’s a gentleman’s piece in an old-time style but large enough for use as a tool to make traps and spears and for other survival needs,” Lyttle (pronounced LITTLE) observed. According to the maker, a voting member of The Knifemakers’ Guild who specializes in highly embellished folders and straight blades, film officials inspected similar knife patterns by assorted U.S. manufacturers to arrive at the piece they wanted.

“They liked big folders with clip-point blades,” he noted.

The result is a knife about 4 1/2 inches long closed with a 3 3/4-inch blade, inch-and-a-half bolsters and an ivory handle. Though Brian specializes in damascus, he used ATS-34 for the blade because movie officials said they wanted a material that wouldn’t stain. The letters “CM” on the knife are the initials of the character played by Hopkins, Charles Morse.

Multiple Models

Lyttle did five knives in all for the movie-four lockbacks and one sliplock. Of the four lockbacks, one is sharp for scenes where cutting is required; one’s dull for scenes where the prevention of any “accidental cutting” is the main concern; one’s a standby; and one’s the presentation piece used in the film. The sliplock appears in an underwater scene where the knife is used to cut a seat belt.

“They didn’t want the performer to have to worry about unlocking the blade while underwater,” Lyttle explained the reason for the sliplock.

He sold four of the knives to movie officials and rented the fifth one to them so he could get it back after filming.

The Knifemaker Steps Into the Movie

Don’t look for Lyttle’s name in the credits at the end of the movie. However, do look for a reference to the maker during the scene where the knife is presented to Hopkins. Inside the blade’s presentation box is a certificate that says, “Lyttle Knife Co.” By the way, that’s the blade Brian rented to the movie and is the one photographed with this story.

Knives are not the only examples of Brian’s work in the film. A skilled engraver, he engraved two watches (a gold one for Hopkins and a stainless steel Omega for co-star Alec Baldwin) and the presentation knife that appears early in the flick.

“The engraving will be easily visible and there’s a special reason for it to be seen,” he winked. “I read the script and it looks like one helluva movie. Hopkins doesn’t do duds.”

A Connection Through Brad Pitt and Legends of the Fall

How did the movie officials learn of Lyttle and his knifemaking? During the filming of Legends Of The Fall, an earlier flick also done in the High River area starring Hopkins and Brad Pitt, Lyttle’s work came to the attention of Pitt.

Pitt visited Lyttle’s home and bought some knives and gave them to some of the movie’s cast, including Hopkins. The same man who put Lyttle in touch with Pitt introduced Brian to an assistant props master.

When it came time to select the knives for The Edge, the assistant props master brought along Lyttle’s knives during a meeting of movie officials, a meeting attended by Hopkins. When Hopkins saw the blades he recognized the maker’s name on them.

Hopkins reportedly said, “They’re damn sharp!”

His reaction no doubt helped sway the movie officials’ decision and Brian had almost every knifemaker’s dream job: making movie blades.

“A Pain in the Neck”

As with most movie relationships, however, it was no picnic for Lyttle. He had to work long hours to get the pieces ready.

“I had three weeks to get the first knife done and I had a knife show to do in-between,” he recalled. “I had to work day and night to meet their deadlines. I had two days off one month and worked some days through midnight until four in the morning.”

And, of course, the movie officials could be a pain in the neck.

“They were very fussy over stuff,” Brian related. “Twelve presentation boxes (for the knife presentation scene) had to be made before they were satisfied with one.”

Worth the Trouble

Still, as almost any knifemaker will tell you, all the toil and trouble is worth it for the dividends such exposure does not only now but down the road, and specifically for Lyttle when people will come up to his table at a knife show and say, “Wasn’t that your knife in that movie with Anthony Hopkins?”

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the December 1994 issue of BLADE. Read more from BLADE‘s extensive archive here.

Again and again, when knives hit the silver screen, they become characters unto themselves. Some knives take that more literally than others. Here’s one example.

A Movie Knife with Tibetan Influences

The Phurba, the knife from the 1994 motion picture, The Shadow, breaks new ground for movie blades because it’s the first to take advantage of new computer-generated special effects. For the dagger in The Shadow, that means the creation of a living, breathing character, so to speak.

“It growls a couple of times, flies through the air, sprouts legs and even bites Alec Baldwin’s hand,” United Cutlery’s Kit Rae said of the knife. “They used a lot of computer graphics so the face on the handle moves, and the handle twists around.”

Designed for the movie by Joe Nemec III, the Phurba – or “Phurbu” as it is also spelled – is based on an actual Tibetan exorcising knife or “ghost dagger” used by lamas (Buddhist monks) to drive out evil spirits. The Phurba dovetails with the theme of The Shadow since the movie begins in Tibet.

A Three-Sided Blade

According to A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor, by George Cameron Stone, the original Phurbas had, “a three-winged blade and a hilt made up of lamaistic symbols. The pommel is usually a head with three faces crowned, with an animal’s head and neck projecting from the top. Thunderbolts (vajras), dragons and dragon’s heads are frequently present. Usually the blades are made of iron and the hilts of brass; sometimes the entire knife is of brass, and occasionally of wood.”

Nemec couldn’t get an authentic Phurba, so he based the movie knife on research, Rae said. The movie Phurba is true to the original knife in looks, right down to the three-sided blade. The main difference is in the number of faces on the handle, which was sculpted by Nemec. Where authentic Phurbas have three faces, the movie version has but one.

“[The movie’s officials] decided on a single face because it fit in with the idea that the knife was a living character,” Rae said.

Editor’s note: The following appeared in the February 1993 issue of BLADE magazine. You can read more from BLADE‘s extensive archive here.

Knifemakers keep the candle lit for traditions going back generations. It’s no wonder Hollywood would turn to these keepers of history when making movies set in centuries past. 

Winkler: It Started with a Casting Call

Knifemakers Daniel Winkler and Randall King capitalized on being at the right place at the right time to make the knives for 1992’s box-office hit, The Last of the Mohicans.

Winkler, who lives in Boone, North Carolina, (the movie was filmed in the nearby North Carolina mountains) read about a casting call for the movie in a local newspaper. A maker of period pieces for and a participant in mountain man rendezvous, Winkler and his knives would seem a good match for the movie’s mid-18th century time frame, but not even he and his business associate, Karen Shook, could have foreseen the good fortune that would befall them when they met with movie prop master Ron Downing.

“Karen and I introduced ourselves to Downing’s secretary and got a map to his office,” Winkler recalled. “We spoke with Downing and he told us he had a meeting that night with the movie’s director, Michael Mann, at which time he was supposed to show Mann the knives that were to be used in the movie.

“But Downing didn’t have any knives! Karen and I ‘happened’ to have a suitcase full of knives and Downing asked if we would stay for the meeting with Mann. Though no specific knives were agreed upon at the meeting, they decided our knives were appropriate and gave them some idea of what they wanted.”

Designing, and Re-Designing, the Knives

From there, Winkler learned just how tough a job he had taken on. He met with production officials to decide on a specific knife design. From that design Winkler made a knife and brought it to the next production meeting, where movie officials suggested more changes.

“I went to six weeks of meetings and they’d change the knife at every meeting. They continually changed the design until the final knives were an evolution of changes,” Winkler said.
Once the final designs were agreed upon, he had to make three of each knife in case any one was damaged or lost, all of which had to look alike.

“It was difficult to get the same shape bone for each handle,” he noted.

The knife can be seen in the first few seconds of this video clip:

Winkler made the knives for Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his adopted brother, Uncas (Eric Schweig), and the tomahawk for the movie’s villain, Magua (Wes Studi). Magua’s tomahawk was one piece Winkler didn’t have to change. It gets the best close-up shot of any of the movie’s edged pieces early on when Magua attacks one of the English soldiers escorting Cora (Madeleine Stowe) and Alice (Jodhi May) Munro to see their father. Winkler said it was copied from a design on display in a French and Indian War museum in New York.

“(The movie officials) didn’t change the reproduction I made,” Winkler said. “When they got it, they liked it.”

King: It Started with Breakfast

King can thank his father for his opportunity to make the movie knives.

“Jim Morgan, the assistant prop master, ate breakfast where my Dad does every morning,” said King, who lives in Asheville, North Carolina, also near where the movie was filmed. “They got to talking and Dad said I made knives they could use in the movie. Jim said to send me down.”

The next thing King knew, he was making movie knives.

Hiding “Blood Bladders” Inside Knife Handles

The knife King made for Chingachgook (played by Russell Means) is a combination of two knives-an English dagger blade with a handle designed by Downing. Like Winkler, King had to make several copies of the knives.

“Do you know how hard it is to duplicate a piece of stag? I took a moose antler and sawed a piece from it about 2 inches in diameter,” he explained. “I sanded it down to the same shape as the original and took a Dremel tool to cut the lines in it and then burned it in places for the stag effect.”

King also had to duplicate the carved bear-head handle of Magua’s knife, and made two special effects knives for Magua with removable handles that hid “blood bladders,” which squirted fake blood when squeezed for the movie’s action scenes. King also made the knives and sheaths for the movie’s extras.

Winkler said the huge gunstock war club that Chingachgook cames in the movie, as well as the other tomahawks used by movie extras, were made by in-house prop people. A lot of the tomahawks were based on authentic designs illustrated in blackpowder catalogs, he noted.

Working with the Stars

Both makers said they got to meet the stars and were impressed with how cordial they were, King even to the point of having his picture made with Studi and Day-Lewis.

Though neither maker “got rich” from the money they made-King used the proceeds to make himself a new knife shop-both viewed the experience as educational.

“Working on a movie production is not something I would want to do very often,” Winkler admitted. “It was fun but it took a tremendous amount of time. They wanted everything right away. I had to put off some of my custom orders and missed some knife shows to meet their deadlines, and a lot of what I did for them was put on the shelf. We (knifemakers) are suppliers, not actors.”

The makers may not be actors but, in a way, the knives and tomahawk were. And if the past is prologue-as with the Rambo knives that helped boost the knifemaking fortunes of Gil Hibben and the late Jimmy Lile-Winkler and King may reap even more benefit to their knifemaking careers from the pieces for The Last Of The Mohicans.