With so much time and effort spent making virtual weapons in games like World of Warcraft and Monster Hunter, or cobbling together world monument #122 in Minecraft, it is refreshing to see a person who is actually making something. Made by Hand / No 2 The Knife Maker is a short documentary that focuses on  Joel Bukiewicz, a craftsman from Brooklyn who makes culinary knives by hand.

Mastering the basics takes, they say, 10,000 hours. That’s like 5 years in 40 hour weeks. I’d say it takes more like 15,000 hours. It takes a lot of work to get there. And when you get there. That’s day one. Then you can start and be making something that you can maybe call art.

That’s a whole lot of sweat and blood, but Bukiewicz ends up with a finished product that he can hold in his hand. I imagine it somehow feels better than holding a virtual sword. 

-Jason Johnson