Gaucho knives and cuchillos criollos of South America

[CelloDan]

This one is my favourite
I missed showing it in the above photo.

I like the bigger and flatter “spoon” like filter.
The holes on the filter are small which helps prevent clogging and there plenty of them.
The big spoon can be used to redistribute the yerba inside the gourd.

This type of bombilla is the type most used in Uruguay and Brazil.
The Yerba there tends to be more finely ground than the Argentine variety.

I have not received the blank yet.
I do look forward to “encabar” a criollo.
My skills and tools are basic but I think it will be a worthwhile experience to give it a try.

I am back on the water on my first solo trip of the year.

The view outside right now with a big moon that woke me up shining inside “Serena’s” cabin.

 

[BluegrassBrian]

Gorgeous wood ! Beautiful knife !
Please show your incoming knife when it arrives and knife number one too since we are at it

Not great pics, just a couple I snapped when it arrived yesterday evening...

 

[kamagong]

What's the size of your new knife BluegrassBrian ?

 

[Trubetzkoy]

The recent activity in this thread made me go back to the book El gaucho y su cuchillo, which I showed here at some point (together with my Kirschbaum "letter opener"). Near the end of the book, there are two very useful consecutive pages: the one breaking down the morphology of the two most readily identifiable types of gaucho knives, the other providing a glossary of other relevant terms. Granted, this might be of limited interested to non-Spanish speakers, and there's probably a good deal of variation even within Spanish when it comes to these concepts (for instance, I wouldn't call the guard defensa, I'd call it guarda), but I figured I'd share the first page here for future reference:

 

[cbach8tw]

This one is my favourite
I missed showing it in the above photo.

I like the bigger and flatter “spoon” like filter.
The holes on the filter are small which helps prevent clogging and there plenty of them.
The big spoon can be used to redistribute the yerba inside the gourd.

This type of bombilla is the type most used in Uruguay and Brazil.
The Yerba there tends to be more finely ground than the Argentine variety.

I have not received the blank yet.
I do look forward to “encabar” a criollo.
My skills and tools are basic but I think it will be a worthwhile experience to give it a try.

I am back on the water on my first solo trip of the year.

The view outside right now with a big moon that woke me up shining inside “Serena’s” cabin.

Are some of the bombillas silver plated or just stainless? Thanks for sharing.

 

[screened porch]

By way of deleting a post I changed my mind about.

 

[CelloDan]

Are some of the bombillas silver plated or just stainless? Thanks for sharing.

They usually come in alpaca, "surgical" stainless steel or in silver for the expensive ones.
I have a couple of them with the "boquilla"( the part that contacts the mouth when drinking ) that are gold plated.
Supposedly, if I remember correctly the sales pitch lol, the gold plating does not impart any "metal" flavour and distributes heat better
If you ask me I see no difference

Here is a 18 k gold plated ( "enchapado" in Spanish) "boquilla"

 

[Trubetzkoy]

Here is a 18 k gold plated ( "enchapado" in Spanish) "boquilla"

If I'm not mistaken, enchapado means 'filled' rather than 'plated,' the difference being that the layer of gold in gold-filled stuff makes up at least 5% of its weight. In other words, your bombilla is probably nicer than one that's merely gold-plated.

 

[Trubetzkoy]

So, the recent discussion about peening (or lack thereof) prompted me to revisit my Kirschbaum puñal, whose pommel I had to repair but which – I must confess – I ended up never properly peening, due to other obligations and no lack of procrastination. Now I've changed that, in what constitutes my first tang peening job:

Below is a more "artistic" pic of the whole knife and another of it with the entire puñal (and quasi-puñal) family:

 

[screened porch]

So, the recent discussion about peening (or lack thereof) prompted me to revisit my Kirschbaum puñal, whose pommel I had to repair but which – I must confess – I ended up never properly peening, due to other obligations and no lack of procrastination. Now I've changed that, in what constitutes my first tang peening job:

Below a more "artistic" pic of the whole knife and another of it with the entire puñal (and quasi-puñal) family:

Great job, and, is that a Finnish bear-head punal?

 

[CelloDan]

my first tang peening job:

Nice !
Looks neat and well done

How long dit it take ? (how hard, or soft was the tang ?)

Did you notice any difference while handling the knife afterwards, as in a more secure and stable handle ?

 

[Trubetzkoy]

Great job, and, is that a Finnish bear-head punal?

Thanks! The knife you're referring to is a German (presumably, since I found it in Germany, though the blade looks somewhat French to me) dog-head puñal. I showed it in post #709.

Nice !
Looks neat and well done
How long dit it take ? (how hard, or soft was the tang ?)
Did you notice any difference while handling the knife afterwards, as in a more secure and stable handle ?

Thanks! I could've buffed the tang to give it a more "finished" look after peening, but I decided to leave it like that, since that's how these knives usually came from the factory back in the day. The entire process took quite a while, since I had to basically recreate the pommel, but the peening itself must've taken some 10-15 minutes. The tang was not super hard, since I preemptively annealed it. As for handling, I don't feel much of a difference since the resin is pretty strong, and I don't really use this knife for much, but I'm sure it's more secure now.

 

[BluegrassBrian]

What's the size of your new knife BluegrassBrian ?

Not as big as it looks in pics.. maybe OAL 8.5" or so. I'll measure it when I get a chance later.

 

[screened porch]

Thanks. Close up, it's obviously a dog.

 

[Trubetzkoy]

A while ago I shared this project for a friend of mine, which started as a Henckels chef's knife:

As seen in the pictures, I ended up refinishing the blade (adding a traditional "differential polish") and dropping the sheath chape (to go better with the rustic design of the knife). Still, what I'm most proud of is the botón oriental. I'll definitely be making more of these in the future.

 

[CelloDan]

Very nice … well done and very cool !!!
Shaping the botón was no doubt quite the undertaking!
The whole package came together very well.
Congrats!

 

[Trubetzkoy]

Since I'll be visiting my wife's family in Germany soon, I've been looking for interesting stuff on European auction and antiques sites. Recently I found these scabbard fittings for sale in Italy:

Besides the general gauchesque vibes, they looked awfully familiar to me, so I searched through my "archives" and, sure enough, I found these turn-of-the-century "La Argentina" knives that were auctioned in England a couple years ago:

The chapes and throat hooks look identical, while the throats themselves are similar but show slightly different patterns (I suspect they're variants of the same "model" but for different blade widths). Since I have a Kirschbaum puñal without a scabbard (shown a couple posts ago and earlier), and "La Argentina" knives (imported by G. Weil & Cía) are said to have been manufactured by Kirschbaum, I thought this would be a great opportunity to put together a somewhat historically correct scabbard for my knife, so I reached out to the seller. She was extremely friendly and answered all my questions. In a nutshell, she found the fittings in the cellar of an old rural house wrapped in a piece of cloth. I asked her if she knew of any South American connections, and she mentioned that the former house owner's wife was born in Venezuela, but she and her family returned to Italy back in the 1920s, so perhaps these fittings were part of a knife brought by them then.

Anyway, the nice lady made me a more than tempting offer, and the throat measurements make it a great fit for my Kirschbaum knife, so I went for them. I won't be getting them until a few months from now though, since they'll be shipped to my parents-in-law's house in Germany, but I'll make sure to post some pictures when I put the scabbard together.

 

[kamagong]

So, the recent discussion about peening (or lack thereof) prompted me to revisit my Kirschbaum puñal, whose pommel I had to repair but which – I must confess – I ended up never properly peening, due to other obligations and no lack of procrastination. Now I've changed that, in what constitutes my first tang peening job:

Below is a more "artistic" pic of the whole knife and another of it with the entire puñal (and quasi-puñal) family:

Great job. I really like that Kirschbaum. The blade shape is on point and the metal used on the handle looks reassuringly solid, especially now that you've peened the tang. Great job!

A while ago I shared this project for a friend of mine, which started as a Henckels chef's knife:

As seen in the pictures, I ended up refinishing the blade (adding a traditional "differential polish") and dropping the sheath chape (to go better with the rustic design of the knife). Still, what I'm most proud of is the botón oriental. I'll definitely be making more of these in the future.

Nicely done on the Henckels. I can't believe you reshaped the botón, you can't tell it's not original. Are you going to try your hand at filework as well?

 

[Trubetzkoy]

Great job. I really like that Kirschbaum. The blade shape is on point and the metal used on the handle looks reassuringly solid, especially now that you've peened the tang. Great job!

Much appreciated. I'm kinda pissed I wasn't able to save the original pommel -- the person who peened it really did a job on it.

Nicely done on the Henckels. I can't believe you reshaped the botón, you can't tell it's not original. Are you going to try your hand at filework as well?

Thanks! I already gave the knife to my friend, so I won't be doing more work on it. However, I tried spine filework (or Dremelwork, to be more precise ) on another blade (also Henckels) and I was pretty satisfied with the result. I don't have with me right now, however, so I can't post pictures...