Gaucho knives - Puñales and Verijeros (South American Bowie)

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I think it's fascinating that the knives that the gauchos use for fancy dress occasions almost invariably have metal handles. I guess stag never caught on as a fancy material?
 
Smithhammer said:
A timely bump and some great info from a thread I never knew existed. Thanks! :thumbup:

It's interesting to see the regional variations in gaucho knives. I spent most of my time (the better part of 5 years) in southern Chile and Argentina, where from what I saw, the preference in general was for less ornate criollos than many of the examples from more northern regions. And, even in the far south, the Argentinian gauchos tended to prefer more ornate interpretations than their Chilean counterparts. Seeing so many regional variations, and cultural differences, reflected in such a ubiquitous tool is fascinating to me.

By the way, for anyone interested, there was a really good book that came out a few years back called "The Last Cowboys at the End of the World" that is worth checking out.
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Thanks!

It's true there is varietions of gauchos, the "vaqueros" of chile are diferent of the "pampas" gaucho(pampa is a long range field that passes through the north of Argentina, Uruguay and all west of the Rio Grande do Sul, famous for free cattle breeding in the plains...)

Here in my region the farmers employees(the real gauchos) use a very simple full tang knife, the handles were made by wood or bones and horns, made from olds machetes, old farm shearing scissors and other materials, like this:

Cuchillas01.jpg


And the owner of the farm whos has alot of money uses this beautiful imported from Europe knife, generally with silver and gold handles and sheaths, also this knives are generally with "integral" contruction. Of course the most ornate knives are the most known by people, like this:

Imagem+2879.jpg


Other option is the great work on leather of "guasqueiro" or " soguero"...

Imagem+54400.jpg

Imagem+54368.jpg


Formerly this knives were imported from, Solingen(Germany), Tiers(France), Liege(Belgium) and England...
Today this brands of kinves are legendary and there are many fake knives unfortunately.

I'm sorry for my bad english, i hope you understand!
 
Rafael -

Thanks for your input and the additional pictures! Given that we have so little access to these types of knives in North America, it's always great to hear and see more from those who actually live in the countries where these knives are used.

I posted on this knife in another thread yesterday, but here's a pic of one that I picked up in Argentina a long time ago:

img2849ht.jpg


It feels great in the hand, and takes a great edge!
 
J. Oeser said:
Rafael, como e que vai cara? I lived in Rio Grande Do Sul for a couple years. I never did make it down to Pelotas but live in Porto Alegre for a time.

Thanks for those links as well. I have long wanted to make a nice gaucho knife. Maybe now is finally the time to put one together.
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É bom ler algo em português... hehehe
Tudo certo e contigo amigo?

Pelotas is the third biggest city on Rio Grande do Sul but is a little far from Porto Alegre(270km) and the only road that exist is terrible, now this is been duplicated, will be better in some years...
The region in north of Porto Alegre is "serra", is a mountain region different from pampa...
The pampa is situated on west and south from Porto Alegre, you know another cities from Rio Grande do Sul?

Actually i just make knives by stock removal, i'm increasing my abilities in forging to try a original integral gaucho(or criollo) knife!!
I'm finishing build my belt grinder(KMG style) to...
Here in my blog you can see some works(sorry, no english subtitles):
http://rstfacas.blogspot.com.br/
 
Smithhammer

I like to know about the origens of all knives, the bowie knife for exemplo have a lot of materials and articles talking about, the gaucho knife is a little unknown and people confuse the style...

Your knife is a authentic criollo knife with integral constrution, the blade is forged and have this round steel part in the beginnig of handle called "botón ou botão", is a little knife for cutting meat in "asado" and make little services. Thanks for show...
 
JAlexander said:
I think it's fascinating that the knives that the gauchos use for fancy dress occasions almost invariably have metal handles. I guess stag never caught on as a fancy material?
Click to expand...

Its true, stag was not a common handle material.
Traditional criollo knives had and have silver handles. A cheaper option has always been the german silver.
An interesting fact for the ones that don't know is that the name Argentina comes from Argentum=Silver.
Spanish thought the country was full of it...not entirely true LOL.
 
Rafael Trentin said:
Smithhammer

Your knife is a authentic criollo knife with integral constrution, the blade is forged and have this round steel part in the beginnig of handle called "botón ou botão", is a little knife for cutting meat in "asado" and make little services. Thanks for show...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. It's 8-1/4" (20.9cm) overall, with a 4-3/4" (12cm) blade. I thought you might find this detail interesting as well:

gaucho3.jpg


And thanks for the link to you blog. Some beautiful work!
beerchuge.gif
 
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Tá tudo bom! Fico feliz de ver um Brasileiro aqui nos fóruns!

Could you please send me an e-mail at jaredoeser@gmail.com Since you are a knife maker yourself I think you could help me in coming up with a design that is more fitting to what is used in RS. Plus I would love to talk.

Rafael Trentin said:
É bom ler algo em português... hehehe
Tudo certo e contigo amigo?

Pelotas is the third biggest city on Rio Grande do Sul but is a little far from Porto Alegre(270km) and the only road that exist is terrible, now this is been duplicated, will be better in some years...
The region in north of Porto Alegre is "serra", is a mountain region different from pampa...
The pampa is situated on west and south from Porto Alegre, you know another cities from Rio Grande do Sul?

Actually i just make knives by stock removal, i'm increasing my abilities in forging to try a original integral gaucho(or criollo) knife!!
I'm finishing build my belt grinder(KMG style) to...
Here in my blog you can see some works(sorry, no english subtitles):
http://rstfacas.blogspot.com.br/
Click to expand...
 
Smithhammer said:
Thanks for the info. It's 8-1/4" (209.5mm) overall, with a 4-3/4" (120.6mm) blade. I thought you might find this detail interesting as well:

gaucho3.jpg


And thanks for the link to you blog. Some beautiful work!
beerchuge.gif
Click to expand...

It's looks like they put 2 pins to fit this brass piece together on handle, i don't know how to call the piece in metal in the end of the handle in english, here we call "pomo"
 
kamagong said:
What size knife do the gauchos prefer these days?

- Christian
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I would say that for everyday work the more common size is a "verijero", about 12-15 cm long blade.

For formal events like "jineteadas" (rodeo), parades and parties they use almost exclusively long knives, 25 cm and more, in the back. But this don't really get used, its more part of the outfit.
 
kamagong said:
What size knife do the gauchos prefer these days?

- Christian
Click to expand...

Good question, the handle is about 4"(10cm) to 5"(12,5cm) in almost all sizes of knives...
Now a days people who live in cities just use their knives to make "asado", "churrasco" or "bbq", they prefer blades with minimum 5"(12cm) and maximum 8"(20cm).

People who live or work on the country side in farms, prefer longer blades with 9"(22,5cm) to 12"(31cm), this blade is used to work in farms, the gaucho generally have more than one knife, each of a size...

Of course there are exceptions, but generally is this!

Today we don't use ours blades to fight(peleia) anymore, therefore very long blades("adaga or daga"for exemple) are unusual.
 
Thanks guys. BTW Manuel I still want you to build me a stag and 52100 criollo. I'll drop you a line when I'm ready.

- Christian
 
I found a fantastic video on YouTube at the weekend, featuring some traditional Uruguayan gaucho butchery, a task that would have put the facon through its paces.

**WARNING: Contains slaughter and butchery of a cow. Blood and guts very much a part of this traditional process**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL4aCcYwTG4
 
scruffuk

This kind of "bbq" is not very common, you might wonder why, it´s very complex to make, but is tradicional.
This video was made in Jaguarão, RS, Brazil border with Rio Branco Uruguay, some of my friends are on video...
Generally, this asado is made in special occasions, i ate one of this in a fair about the Angus cattle breed, very good and taste different!
In Argentina they have competitons about the best "asado en cuero", i guess...
 
Interesting information, thanks for bumping this thread back to the surface!
I've always been interested in these South American knives (in fact, this is my preferred method to carry a mid-size sheath knife, and the one I carry/use most is a medium size American-style bowie type, in a sheath of this type that I've made to hold it). Boker used to produce one of these, didn't they? I think it may have even been a part of their Arbolito line, made in Argentina.
 
Hi !

I found your post, and wanted to contact you

I collect gaucho knives and own one of the most important collections of gaucho knives in South America, around 500 knives

If you want to know something about them, just let me know, will be a pleasure to share my knowledge or pictures with you

Kind Regards,
Luis
 
I too would love to see your collection, Luis!! I have always admired Gaucho knives and the whole history! Looking forward to your input:thumbup::thumbup:
 
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