KNIFE MAKERS in other LANDS!!!!

A

Allen Blade

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MERRY Christmas!!!,


I was Just wondering , since I am sure we have members here from other countrys, such as kenshiro from Malaysia, Ect...

Do the members from these Country`s know of Custom Makers in there respective Countrys, and What type of Designs, quality they produce?

We see Articles mentioning, South african makers, and Canadian makers , but what about the EXOTIC locations of the world.

What have you members Run across in you worldly travels???

Thanks for responding,

Allen Blade
 
Here in the Philippines, there are a lot of knifemakers in the province, particularly in Batangas where the Balisongs are made.

Other parts of the country like the Bicol region are also well-known for their swords and other cutlery, like bolos, machetes, etc.

Mindanao region are famous for their Barongs, Kris, etc...

The only custom makers I know of, are those who make made-to-order balisongs, according to what the buyer wants, and using premium grade steel and materials.

They do charge an arm and a leg, but the knife is well worth it.
smile.gif


Dan

[This message has been edited by Dannyc (edited 14 December 1999).]
 
Here in brazil there are about a dozen and a half knifemakers who work the way you Americans are used to - the main difference seems that over here most of then do their own heat treatment and they are very open to customers designs. Being a dealer, I have dealt with most of them. quality is usually above average for their prices, but some of them are very irresponsible reagrding delivery dates, etc (by the way, the delivery dates here seldonly are over 3 months). right now, the number of custom makers is increasing ver fast - I have been contacted by at least 4 new makers after this year´s Blade show and at least one seems very promising: since July he has torned out three liner locks, and he had never tried any folder before. He is about 17 years old. I keep hearing about others showing up here and there. The best Brazilian maker today, in my opinion, is flavio Ikoma, from presidente prudente. He can make anything from folders to frontier knives to traditional tantos and his work is very detailed. But he is also very slow on the delivery time, at least for our standards: he can take up to eight months to make your knife.
We have, also, the usual country knifemaker in the whole country - each region with its specific style. Right here where I live there is still a 75+ year old blacksmith making Sorocabanas - the typical knife of this part of the State of São Paulo, wich has a clear relation with the Mediterranean dirk - like they used to be done 150 years ago, except that most of his customers today prefer micarta handles.
As we have many Japanese people living here, beside the Antique Japanese swords sometimes found, we have had a number of Japanese swordmakers, whose work could vary from your typical wall-hanger katana to very high quality work. I have seen tha work of three of these, but I am sure there have been more.
In a country as big as this one, with such mix of people, you never know what is going to show up right in front of you - and that is not a complaint!
Best regards

Ivan Campos
 
Great topic Allen. I don't have much to contribute, but I'd like to learn. I've got at least one excellent Mexican Bowie knife I bought from a cutlery stall in the central mercado in Guadalajara. I've had it for 20 years so I don't remember the maker. The Mexican Bowies can be nicely done, but the handles tend to be small.
 
we have several custome knife makers in israel. most do their knives for hobby.not enough market to sell them succsesfuly.
however our best custome knife maker was killed last august in a terrorist attack and we lost the most promising maker.
his name was eduard bradichansky and you can see two of his desighns in the spyderco line.
the SHABARIA and the SPYDERCARD.
scorpio.
 
Hi Allen!
Here in the east coast of Malaysia, there are some kris makers who still produces some nice pieces but the art is slowly fading away as the younger generations are not interested in them. The kris's blade material are some what close to those of U.S damascus steel. Hand forged through out and usually in aged finish. They are symbols of power and wealth in olden days, much like the katanas and tantos of the samurais and nobels. There was a written article in "Blade" magazine a few months back featuring KRIS, it's quite elaborate and much info. is found.
Parangs are not worthy of mention as they are mass produced and poorly finished. Good for hard use in the jungle, that's all.
Famous makers? I don't think i know any here but i plan to be one in my later years if God allows! He!he!
I'll try to find out more and up date you folks later.
On behalf of my country, i thank you all who have the interest!
 
Hello,


Cool posts,,very interesting information.

I have always wondered about makers also in countrys like China , and Russia, i wonder if there Craft is Regulated by the Government.

I think there are some very good japanese makers, but also i think some that do swords are regulated by the government to only produce like 1 or 2 a year or somthing like that.

I remember the Story once in Fighting Knives magazine about a Vietnamese man in a village there who was Forging Blades for Servicemen during the war,,they were suppose to be Very tough, excellent blades, i think he was using a Spring steel. Cant remember the name though.


Happy Holidays,
Allen Blade
 
Add Korth and Zakharov to your list of Brazilian Makers. Both seem to favor fixed blade patterns (I have a few fighters and huntings patterns from Korth, and a survival knife by Zakharov). Pricing for both are very reasonable to the US$ right now due to currency exchange rates.

In Argentina look up Perpina and Porcel for some very good quality fixed blade patterns.

[This message has been edited by not2sharp (edited 14 December 1999).]
 
Hello Dave,

Average price for bolo would probably be around $30 to $40 converted. As to the barong, I'm not sure, coz I've only seen one, and its my dad's. But I guess if it doesn't have any of those mother of pearl ornaments, I'd say pretty much about the same as above.

Dan
 
Hello!
I live in germany and there are a lot of (at least in europe) well known knifemakers around. There is a german knife makers guild and some of the top makers here are:
Manfred Sachse (damascus, but retires in 2000)
Christian Wimpff (hi tech folders)
Fritz Schneider (stainless damascus, mostly fixed blades)
Richard Hehn (fixed blades, integrals)
Dietmar Kressler (integrals)
Werner Kaluza (integrals)
Wolf Borger (everything)
There are dozens of other professionals and a large number of part and spare time makers. An interesting group of non-professionals which does a lot of metallurgic research are
Ulrich Gerfin (Judge in Frankfurt)
Roman Landes (BMW Munich formula 1 engineer) and
Jean-José Tritz (Hamburg).
As i am living near the holland, belgium and french frontiers and read, write and speak netherlands and french as well, i can tell you that there are lots of very well known knifemakers in both countries, too. Especially in france you may find lots of very good bladesmiths. They even have an organization similar to the ABS there. Some names:
Van den Heuvel-family (Hill-Knives), holland
Gert van den Elsen, holland
Frans van Eldik, holland
Pierre Reverdy (best damascus smith under the sun), france
Christian Moretti (metallurgic expert), france
Henri Viallon (damascus), france
Michel Blum, france

To Allen Blade:
Yes, there are some very good knifemakers, bladesmiths mostly, in Russia doing traditional work. And no, they are not regulated by the government, because russia is, like the usa, a democracy since some years.

If someone is interested, i can give some names from switzerland, italy, norway, denmark and some more names of the aforementioned countries, too. But i think this is getting too long.

Achim
 
Hey, not2sharp and Automatic

Ricardo Bernardes lives in Itajubá, MG - wich is the same city where is based IMBEL, wich makes 1911 clones for Springfield and the FAL assault rifle. he is a grat knifemaker and his work seems to improve every year. His entire name is Ricardo Romano Bernardes, and everybody over here calls him only Romano.
Korth is a team of two brothers, Ricardo e roberto Lala - and I have done business with him many, many times. they are very fast and reliable, very honest too. Right now I have a San Francisco dagger on order with them, with stainless damascus blade, pearl halndle slabs and nickel mounted leather sheath.
Regarding Zakharov, his knives are very poorly made and quite expensive for what they offer. a commom joke over here is that they never get dull because they break before that..much before!
regarding Perpina & Porcel, I have done business with them a couple times - very nice guys but their knives never sold very well here in Brazil.
Right now I have three knives from Romano and three from Korth in stock, including a large khukury style knife with stag handles and 440C mirror polished blade. I also have one Perpina & Porcel hunter. If you´re interested, let me know and I´ll e-mail more details. As a sidenote, the prices of these are very inviting due to the US$ x R$ rate.
Best regards

Ivan Campos
 
Hey, not2sharp!
I forgot to ask in the last post, but where did you get Korth´s knives in the US?

Ivan Campos
 
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