Whirling Dervish

John Gonzalez Knifemaker Dervish Knives

Without a doubt John has a pronounced flair for Persian blades. It is obvious in the upswept tip of his Wendigo and in the Ishtar and Ishtar xl. I was very fortunate to purchase these as a pair from the original owner. None of these large knives are likely to replace my EDC knife because of their size, but boy are they a beauty to behold and to work with.

Is there any rhyme or reason to this Persian style of blade or is it just some ethnic design aberration? That depends largely on whether you are educated in the many ways of knife usage or you are only a collector/spectator. M.A.A. James Keating’s Spyderco, called the Chinook, is another example of this sweeping design Master Keating is not known as a ma to waste his time with superfluous blade shapes. If you have watched any of Keatings’ videos you will know that the sharply upturned tip is intended to be driven into your attacker by rolling your hand over, blade upside down, and snapping it into the target.

Hiking down to the dojo it didn’t take long discover that the shorter Ishtar would cleanly slice and dice pool noodles with its sweeping primary edge. In slashing attacks this knife performed exactly as I would have expected it to. Anything the short Ishtar will do, the XL version of the Ishtar will do, only with greater enthusiasm.

John advised me that they only made two of the XL’s. Rare or not, these knives are fighters and keepers! The radically curved blade tends to pull itself away from the target but there is ample length to get the job done. The first cut, and every following cut, produced nice thin noodle slices. Rolling my hand over into back snap cuts against a cardboard target demonstrated the tremendous penetration power of the wicked tip. Power slashes or back snap cuts delivered with this knife would be devastating! Despite its large size, the Ishtar is still fast in the hand and the bird’s head grip shape provides excellent weapon retention. This handle style and weight forward balance encourages a cutting action and feel similar to that of using a short machete. The faceted grips are visually exciting and very comfortable with all the bulges in the right places. Anything the short Ishtar will do, the XL version of the Ishtar will do, only with greater enthusiasm. John advised me that he only made two of the XL’s. Rare or not, these knives are natural born fighters and keepers!