OT Sorocabana arrived! Thanks Ivan Campos!

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fausto nasafiaschi

Joined
Aug 6, 2000
Messages
506
My Sorocabana arrived today! The most surprising thing is that it was sent to Fort Lauderdale, but it actually reached me in Athens (Greece)! Somebody in the home office must have taken pity on me.
It is a fascinating knife. 16" overall with a thin (shy of 3 mm) 10" long blade and the 6" umbrella shaped handle. The handle slabs are black horn and they sit on a brass liner and then pinned to the handle. The blade is fitted very accurately to the handle and pinned as well. The mirror finish is superb.
This knife is obviously not meant to be used as a pry-bar, many khuk lovers would probably frown upon the thin blade. But as a fighter, it has a lot of reach and speed to it. If you want to have a look, it's the last two pix on my album. Mind you, the pix are not the best.
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?m=99564462203&n=791053880
Thank you Ivan, the knife is not short of my expectations!
Fausto

:D :D :D
 
You are not much better taking pix than me, Fausto. But from what I can see it looks to be a pretty decent knife.
 
Fausto, I also see that Auriovaldo(sp?) continues to improve and should this continue, would expect to see even more of his work .

:)
 
Uncle you are right, the pix is crap!I've changed it now,it should be a bit better.
Retaining the same overall appearance, an integral building, with 10 cm less of blade and 4 mm of thickness by the spine, I'm sure would make for a great everyday utility knife (may be not in line with the traditional execution). I really like the umbrella handle, I don't know how many times I've already unsheated the knife since I've opened the package this morning!
Fausto
 
That's a nice looking knife! Are you sure you measured it right, though? No metric to inch conversion problems? In the pic, the blade measures out to more than 3 times the length of the handle, which would mean that if the total is 16", the blade would be at least 12" and the handle a bit less than 4" or if the blade is really only 10" long, then the handle would be only about 3". Maybe the perspective is misleading, but it doesn't look like it was taken at an angle that would seriously foreshorten the handle. Whatever is going on, it's a beauty.

Paul
 
Paul,
I've just measure it again (a good excuse to unsheath it)and it is 10" blade + 6"' handle. The pix is kind of misleading because it has been shot at an angle to avoid the light glaring on the blade. The other reason why the handle may look shorter is the fact that what looks like the very first inch of the blade is the end of the handle in which the blade is fitted and pinned.
Ciao
Fausto
 
Originally posted by fausto nasafiaschi
The other reason why the handle may look shorter is the fact that what looks like the very first inch of the blade is the end of the handle in which the blade is fitted and pinned.
Ciao
Fausto
Click to expand...

Fausto do you mean that the handle and blade are in two pieces and fitted and pinned together under what looks like the decorative area between the blade and handle? :confused:
From the looks of the handle I thought it was a full or chiruwa style tang?

I have loved the looks of this knife from the first time I saw it. There's just too many knives and not enough time or money!!!!:(
 
Fausto,

Great looking knife. I remember when Ivan was taking orders on them a few months ago. Now I remember why I liked them so much... they sure are purty :)

Alan
 
The handle looks almost a bit on the small side. I like them that way. You can move your hand around easily and then clamp as part of the strike. Makes me think of the baton twirlers in the high school bands. That's what gives my 12" Sirupati Audrey part of her feel. May have to stop by Toys'R Us and buy me a couple of batons. Then move up to polycarbonate monadnocks PR whatevers.

On the sorocabanas, does the handle have that alive mongoose "dance of death" flicking feel to it like Audrey does? For that matter does anyone even understand what I'm trying to get at?
 
Fausto do you mean that the handle and blade are in two pieces and fitted and pinned together under what looks like the decorative area between the blade and handle?

It sounds quite odd, but it is the traditional way they are made! Modern industrial ones are one piece.

On the sorocabanas, does the handle have that alive mongoose "dance of death" flicking feel to it like Audrey does?

Yes it does, I guess is the reason is sitting on my desk and I keep playing with it. It definitely has a fighter feeling to it.

The overall shape reminds me of some old hunting / fighting knives, which can be seen in museums and were common in Italy and southern europe around 300 years ago. It is very close to what is also called mediterranean dirk.

Fausto
 
Hello

I am glad you got your knife and is happy with it, Fausto.
I have seen this thread when it started but have been a little short on time to say anything.
Regarding Ariovaldo, he is getting better at every knife he makes but I am a bit disappointed with him as he is unable to keep up with his delivery time and works only when he feels like. He will never be a pro, I think, on the business meaning of this word.
Fausto's knife was particularly well made but was the last one I got from him. There is another half finished in his banch for about two months, now...
Regarding its style, it looks a bit like the Mediterraneam dirk and, as a matter of fact, Fausto, when Italian maker Santino Ballestra (whose wife is Brazilian) dropped by a few years ago, he brough a traditional Italian knife that was very similar in shape to a small gaucho knife, another descent of the Mediterranean dirk (and this pretty little knife never made it back to Italy...) . I would say, though, that teh Sorocabana carries a bit more of the Arab heritage of the Iberic peninsula in its design. Still, lots of misteires still surround this knife.
Technically, I don't know why the blade is inserted in the handle but there are three theories: a) to save the better steel, as the handle is usually made from a softer steel; b)to allow blade changes when they were wasted (I have seen many examples with changed blades); c) to act as a copound bow, strenghtening the thin spring blade (heard this one recently but may be true, as in well over 500 junk Sorocabanas I have seen, no one shown the slightest sign of damage at the area where the blade joins the handle, even the one whoise blades were broken). By the way, the blades are usually measured from the beginning of the enterço (the area where the blade and handle join), and not from its end.
Let me thank Uncle Bill for allowing such OT topics to be discussed in his forum. And, by the way, while that ticket to Manaus is beyond my capabilities, you better save space under your bed for one of these to park one of these days, Uncle!
 
" he is unable to keep up with his delivery time and works only when he feels like."

This sounds just like the kamis of BirGorkha and Terry Sisco.
 
Glad you replied Ivan!
I know Ballestra's fine work from the pages of some italian guns and knives magazines. What I really like in Italy (beside the food!) are the traditional regional knives (from Sardinia, Tuscany, Calabria, Sicily, Naples). I should be getting soon a "leppa", the traditional fixed blade of the shepherds from Sardinia, this is another very old design.
As it is often said: too many knives, too little time and/or money!
Fausto
 
Studying the old traditional patterns of each region is a great experience and helps keeping them alive. By the way, saving the Sorocaban from being forgotten was an early objective for me and I think I reached farther than I ever though I would making it internationally known.
By the way, I should mention that the one-piece construction, factory sorocabanas mentioned by Fausto were last made in the late sixties, early seventies and were usually drop forged or simply stamped from athin sheet of steel and ground at the edge, and quality varies a lot from knife to knife. Opposite to the earlier handmade Sorocabanas., these were usually marked.
 
Fausto, my Grandfather, James, came from Calabria and he used to forge some traditional knives but it's been so long ago I can't remember much about them.
 
Uncle,
Italy is indeed a "knife" land, and almost every region has its traditional designs. They are almost all of them folding knives. In the whole country knife-fighting was a serious a social plague up to the early 1900. As a matter of fact, even before the unification of the kingdom of Italy, each single regional state had its own laws forbidding the concealed carry of fixed blades of any kind. This is the reason no fixed blade design (with the exeption of Sardinia's) survived up to today. As an answer to this, the old knife makers turned out some very mean looking folders. In the early 1900, laws became even more restrictive limiting the carry to folding knives not exceeding 3" of blade length and with rounded tips. These laws were applied very strictly in the cities, where the problems related knife fights were more felt.
Still now in Italy a large knife (fixed or folder)can only be carried in special circumstances (hunting, fishing, hiking, working in the fields or at sea) and the concealed carry of anything that can be considered an edged weapons is totally forbidden. The regional designs have widely re-surfaced only in the last few years along with a revival of the italian knife making tradition and the booming of knives collecting.
Fausto
 
Interesting stuff, Fausto.

Grandpa James was living here when I used to watch him forge knives and he made knives that look something like our Kumar Karda and he made a couple of other fixed blades, both larger and also smaller than the karda which he used for butchering animals. But he could also make a folder and my dad, Frank, watched him do it enough times so that he could make a folder also. In fact, the last folder I got was a gift from Dad who made it for me as a present for my birthday. Nothing fancy, just a down and dirty effort and a pretty tough little knife with about a 4 inch blade.
 
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