Space Knife © 2018 David Scott Holloway/All Rights Reserved
Since I’ve posted this photo on my LinkedIn profile several people have asked me about it. So here is the story.
The knife belonged to Anthony Bourdain. Crafted by one of America’s greatest knife smiths, Bob Kramer, it was forged from a blend of steel and meteorite. Bourdain had been wanting one since he did an episode of Raw Craft with Kramer. Then in 2016, Tony told me he got one of Kramer’s knives. I told him I had to photograph it. I started calling it “Space Knife.” Every time I’d see him I’d ask if he brought the space knife for me to shoot. Or when we were traveling he’d glance over to see me standing off to the side miming a cutting motion and I’d look right at him and doing my terrible Jim Carrey impression say “Sssssspaaaaaace Kniffffffe!”
Obviously, he didn’t travel with it. I hadn’t even really seen it. He had shown me a photo on his phone. Then in April 2018, we were in town at the same time, he said I should come over and check it out.
He got it out and handed it to me. He told me I could cut up anything in the kitchen, but I had to eat whatever I cut up. I used it to cut up a couple of apples and a chicken sandwich that I had been carrying around in my backpack.
He was hilariously critical of my terrible knife skills. He said his daughter could cut better than I could. This is most definitely true. I wanted to cut my finger off so I could say that I had meteorite in my blood. He gave me some guidance and then watched me use it again, then told me I should stick to washing dishes. I have had a couple of great jobs doing dishes and I find it to be really meditative.
I set up a light and wiped the knife off and made this photo and a few others. We started talking about art and I started digging through some of his things I hadn’t seen. He had a lot of cool art; an exploded skull, a polished Michelin Man statue, a portrait of his friend Iggy Pop, a few Ralph Steadman drawings, his Simpson’s script, lots of curious and cool things.
I kept opening drawers and pulling things out, I’d say “What’s this?” or he would say “Come look at this…” and lead me into the other room and pull a book off the shelf or print off the wall. As it often did the conversation turned darker. Tony had a dark sense of humor and was introspective about everything. I kept commenting on how cool this thing is or that thing and he said “It’s all just shit that someone is going to throw in a dumpster when you’re dead.”
I replied, “Well maybe my stuff, but I think someone is going to want most of your stuff.” He said “We’ll see.”
Well Tony, I told you so.
202 of Bourdain’s items were put up for auction as part of The Collection of Anthony Bourdain and were sold at "amounts significantly higher than their estimates," according to the auction house, taking in $1,846,575 in total.
Tony paid $5000 for the Space Knife. That was a steal, but at the auction, it went for $231,250. I often try to wrap my head around that number, nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Maybe that might have also been a steal, that knife has a bit of Bob Kramer’s heart and a bit of Anthony Bourdain’s soul. That’s pretty powerful stuff.
Much of the auction proceeds will support the Anthony Bourdain Legacy Scholarship at The Culinary Institute of America. That’s pretty great too.