New member from South Africa

H

HennieL

Member
Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the opportunity to introduce myself.

I'm a part-time knife maker, living in the town of Bloemfontein, in central South Africa. I'm a long-term knife user (got my first knife in 1964, and have never been without one since then :biggrin:). I've been making knives as a hobby for about 4 years now, and specialize in making "proper" hunting knives for hunters, although I do also make the occasional dagger and whatever else takes my fancy.

Being an engineer, I'm pretty fascinated by the metallurgy of steel, and I'm forever looking to learn new things about the materials that I work with.

Here's a few examples of my work:

1915.JPG
Hunter with Kudu-horn handle, Sandvik 12C27 steel

IMG_2083_s.jpg
Large camp knife, stabilized maple handle, 5160 steel

IMG_2119.jpg
Small utility hunter, Lebombo ironwood handle, Bohler N690 steel

IMG_2122.jpg
Hunter with stabilized maple handle, Bohler M390 steel and titanium bolsters

IMG_2127.jpg
Skinner with Sandvik 14C28N steel and G10 handle

Well, that's about it for now :3:

Regards
Hennie L
 
Those are stellar, nice flowing lines with a classic look. If I hadn't found my niche in thug knives this would be my kinda thing.
 
Welcome to the forum from a fellow engineer. I really like your knives, especially the second photo. Nice work.
 
Thanks for the warm welcome, and the nice things that everyone said about my knives - it's much appreciated :1:

Really looking for really nice knives photos....
Click to expand...

OK, here's one more photo of my usual knives, based loosely on the Loveless pattern. the left and centre knifes were made from aold Nicholson files (i.e. 1095), and the one on the right from D2.

1128.jpg

The next two photos show two of my "non normal" knives, the first a Scottish Dirk, patterned on a museum photo of a circa 1750 Dirk, and the second a replica of a medieval Gothic dagger. The latter won "best fancy fixed blade" at our club's last annual show.

1130.jpg

1135.jpg

Hennie
 
welcome to KnifeDogs...
good to see there is an active and growing knife maker presence in SA

t
 
Thanks for the welcome, Tracy.

good to see there is an active and growing knife maker presence in SA
Click to expand...

Oh, we've been making custom knives in South Africa for many years - the first smithy that specialized in knives was started way back in 1797... Our first "modern" custom makers (Owen Wood, Piet Grey, etc.) started making knives in the mid to late 1970's, and the hobby / business of custom knife making has steadily grown since then.

The club I belong to (with members from a large part of central South Africa) has about 18 members, of which three are making their living solely from making custom knives. The rest of us are in it for fun, and for the challenge of making that "perfect" knife. I guess that in total there must be a few hundred knife makers (full- and part time) in South Africa.

I am fortunate that there are many hunters (myself included :biggrin:), farmers and outdoors-men in my country, as I prefer that my knives are put to real, honest use, and not locked away as mere collector's items.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top