Art
The Crafting Of Fine Kirpans
JOT SINGH KHALSA
I’ve been designing and making knives, swords, kirpans and fine jewelry full-time since 1978. Through good fortune, my work has been featured on book covers, magazine covers, in museum exhibitions and in print media published in 9 languages. My edged work has also won top awards at knife shows throughout the USA and in Europe.
These can be viewed at http://www.khalsakirpans.com/pages/awards.
It was around 1978 that Singh Sahib Harbhajan Singh Yogi sent me a letter and said: ‘Son – you have artistic gifts, make things that uplift and inspire people’.
By the grace of God, my team and I do our best to honor that advice almost 40 years later, in everything that we offer.
I grew up on the east coast USA, in the Boston area and started practicing Kundalini yoga and meditation while attending the State University of New York at New Paltz from 1972-1978. As an art studio major, I focused on acquiring metalsmithing and jewelry making skills in gold, silver and non-precious metals.
During those university years I moved into a 3HO Foundation ashram community that happened to be right where I was going to school and I began adopting the lifestyle and garb of a Sikh.
The first of a number of kirpans was created for my Senior studio project while finishing up with college. I presented that Kirpan to Singh Sahib and it is now housed in the Sikh Dharma Archives in New Mexico, USA along with a number of daggers, swords, folding knives, and kirpans, that I fabricated, many of them in collaboration with some of the world’s finest engravers.
The lessons Singh Sahib taught me, while requesting and acquiring many of the pieces in this collection and other weapons which found their way to different locations in the world, had a profound impact on me. My wife and I felt blessed through many interactions with him over decades.
Creating and delivering the Sword of Baisakhi ’99 to Anandpur Sahib, Punjab, was one of those deeply blessed adventures, that enriched us and helped us understand the privilege I was afforded to create and execute this complex sword project. Read more here:
http://www.khalsakirpans.com/collections/swords/products/the-sword-of-baisakhi-99
Designing knives, swords, kirpans and jewelry is something I’ve enjoyed immensely over years. My style represents a classic and contemporary harmony of form, function, and feel. I enjoy choosing materials and oftentimes components that will best complement a design.
For the past 6 years, Khalsa Kirpans has offered a line of more affordable kirpans hand-made to the highest standards, largely for Sikhs worldwide. They can be viewed and purchased at: www.khalsakirpans.com and then clicking on the dropdown menu below ‘Artisan Kirpans.’
We call them the ‘World’s Finest Kirpans’ and we are grateful to have found excellent manufacturing to provide us with a product that has the highest standards. Our team members work to inspect each one, insuring we’re offering these with the highest standards of craftsmanship, fit and finish.
We also design and have offered a unique line of miniature knives, daggers and kirpans that can be worn as pins and pendants. These miniature knives are conceived to assist us as reminders to ‘Cut through Life’s Challenges and Achieve Excellence’ and to ‘Awaken the Spiritual Warrior who fears nothing and causes none to fear…’.
They can be viewed and purchased at: www.LifeKnives.com We also design, create and offer a rather extensive line of ‘Fine Jewelry and Artful objects to Uplift and Inspire’ which can be viewed and purchased at www.TheKhalsaRaj.com.
This line of fine jewelry and objects is largely offered to serve those who are affiliated with the Sikh religion worldwide, and all kinds of folks who are attracted to peruse and shop our over 2,000 items there.
I taught at Miri Piri Academy in Punjab twice during brief visits around 20 years ago. Teaching the children jewelry making was immensely satisfying and my prayer still remains to set up a program there for not only jewelry design and fabrication but also for knife, sword and kirpan-making as well, even possibly teaching them how to make Damascus steel for blades as well, a rather mystical forge-welded metal.
Then to be able to offer the kids work opportunities within our business would be our ultimate hope – to continue the legacy that my beloved teacher helped me embrace – creating things to uplift and inspire.
I’ve found being involved in martial arts training for over 30 years deeply satisfying and confidence building. I had the good fortune to manage the kitchen at the 3HO Foundation’s Summer and Winter Solstice Celebrations in the USA bi-annually for over 30 years. These decades of service have been great blessings in my life, helping me understand the importance and privilege of serving others. I continue to serve as an advisor at these events.
For more than three decades I’ve lived with my wife, Harbhajan Kaur, residing at Guru Ram Das Ashram in Millis, Massachusetts, USA, where we also have a small manufacturing facility.
[Courtesy: Sikhs and Seekers. Edited for sikhchic.com]
December 9, 2014