Hello all!
I just want to add some information on this special type of knife. I have been several times on the canary islands and have seen quiet a lot of them. Like many other knives and "typical" things in a touristic environment, there are lots of fake canary knives made as souvenirs from scrap metal sheet with plastic handles. However the real cuchillos canarios are hand forged and finished by traditional bladesmiths. To find their shops is very difficult because they don't advertise in any way and there are only some of them left working on the Gran Canaria and the Fuerteventura Island. The finish of the very thin (about 1 to 1,5 mm) blades is quiet rough. But this is ok, because the artwork is not on the blades but on the handles.They are, as can be seen on the aforementioned page, always spindle-shaped and traditionally made of goats horn with silver or brass wire inlay and bolster/buttcap from the same metal. The designs of the handles vary from artist to artist and if you know them well you can say in which shop they were made. The designs of the handles are very traditional and are highly influenced from the old designs of the guanches, which were the original inhabitants of the canary islands. They didn't know steel but used the designs on their pottery and clothing.
If you want to buy an original cuchillo canario of high quality, you can get them in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the shop of the so called "canary village" in the center. There is another shop in the tourist information center in Playa del Ingles in the south of Gran Canaria which has always some knives of very high quality for sale.
I should say that the real cuchillos canarios are not cheap. Prepare to pay about 100 to 200 $. But on the other hand i think this is a bargain for a real custom made traditional knife.
If you are on the islands and are lucky, there is an exposition of the best knives every two years, i think in december.
Achim
