Hello there guys. Never been to this part of the forums... so let me introduce myself. I am Jeff Velasco and I run the brazilianbladesmiths.com.br website. I sond those two knives you see above, both gaucho style camp knives by Luciano Dorneles and Rodrigo Sfreddo. The costumer is a great friend from CA.
The gaucho knives descend from the mediterranean dirks, that I believe descend (at least in design) from the average european trend knives. It was basicaly the same kind of knive that almost sliced off Bowie´s finger. Now the solution to that problem that they proposed in the north was to add a guard, and then the Bowie knife was born, so to say. In the south, they created the "S" shaped choil in order to protect the fingers.
The gaucho people are mostly cowboys. They descend from Spanish and Indian orgin, but it´s not a race or ethinic group of people anymore, but a lifestyle, or better, a way to live, if you can pick the diference.
100 years ago a gaucho would be taken as a wanderer, someone that dealed with catle, didn´t have a fixed residence (like a farm, a piece of land to setle in) and was ready to take part on any of the several frontier conflicts that took place at the time between Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay (The three countries breed this interesting people), or the civil wars of the late 19th century in Brazil. As history became present and no more wars happened (the last one I think was the federalist revolution of 1893) they began to setle in fams and dedicate themselves to catle drives and work, but the traditions remain to the present day.
Their knife is one primary tool. They would use it for everything! Klling the enemy or the oxen for beef, to skin animals, to cut wood for fire, to eat barbeque (have you ever seen a gaucho barbeque??? now THAT´s a sight!) and do whatever work one may need.
If there is any other information I can add, please ask away. If I can´t answer I will look it up for you.
