WHAT IT’S REALLY LIKE...
To be a knifemaker
The way I started making knives? I was 18 years old and I made one for myself. My next-door neighbour saw it and said, ‘Can you make me one?’ So I made a second one, which was better than the first, and it went on from there.
I’d read a few books on how to do it. Of course, this was pre-internet and pre-YouTube, so I never had any chance to learn that way, whereas today I have 11-year-old kids who come to me and say ‘Look at the knife I’ve made; this is my second’, and you go, ‘Wow – you’ve done a really good job’. So I read books and I learnt from my own mistakes.
In the end I’m pretty much self taught, but I did find a few other local knifemakers and I picked their brains. That was back in 1989. It started off as a bit of a hobby. It became a bit of an obsession. And then it became almost a full-time occupation. Along the way I dabbled in all sorts of aspects of
knifemaking, not just one avenue. There are basically three different ways you can make a knife. A lot of people forge knives; that is, they heat up a piece of steel with a forge until it’s hot and hammer it to shape, or they do stock removal, which is where you cut a piece of steel out and grind it to shape. Forged knives seem to be what people are
demanding at the moment. I think it’s because people are leaning away from stainless steels and going back to plain high-carbon steels. Steels that will rust, but they’re easy to sharpen – they get really, really sharp – so it’s easy for people to sharpen their knife and use it in the kitchen and enjoy it. But the most popular kinds at the moment have to
be the Damascus knives. Damascus steel is a combination of two steels, forge-welded together and cut in half, and doubled over so
layers build up to the point where we might have two or three hundred. One of the steels has nickel in it and the other doesn’t, so that when we etch it, the nickel steel will go bright and shiny and the other steel goes a darker colour; that brings out contrast and pattern. And no two are the same: a bit like snowflakes. You can manipulate the patterns to a certain extent, but they will always be individual. They’re very popular at the moment because of the way they look. And if we use high-quality materials, they do perform very well. They’re truly unique and you can’t buy that in a factory knife. As far as price difference goes, a good factory knife can set you back about three or four hundred
dollars anyway. Most handmade knives will be around the four to five, maybe six-hundred-dollar mark, so while they’re a little more expensive, you are getting a handcrafted item that will last forever, which will outperform the factory knives, for not much extra. The other thing people ask me a lot is ‘how do I get a knife made or ordered?’ Because today we’re quite programmed to look up a website, browse through the photos, click on something and have it arrive in two days’ time. But purchasing a handmade custom knife is not that kind of experience. Most of the time people will contact me, they’ll let me know what they want to use it for and, from there, I can advise them on materials and styles and, from my experience, be able to guide them. We work out what their budget is and we can also adapt what I make to their budget. I go ahead and make the knife, then they pay for it and I send it out. Now, it sounds like a bit of a long-winded process but it’s more of a journey than the buying experience we’re normally used to.
It takes time to get something perfect. And they’re made one at a time. They’re not stamped out and mass-produced. It could be anywhere between two or four weeks for me to make a knife for a customer, depending on how busy I am, and how many orders I’ve got. And not only am I a true custom-maker for people, I do make knives and take them to craft shows like the Lost Trades Fair, so people can see my work there and purchase it on site.
Famous knifes? I made some knives for Attica restaurant and Ben Shewry. Fast Ed from Better Homes and Gardens has ordered a knife. He’s a really good character. I have been asked to do a few for movies, but they always want them on very short notice. They want them within a week or so and it’s just not possible to do that sort of thing. But yeah, we have had custom-makers involved in the movie industry; the knife for Crocodile Dundee was handmade by an Australian.
I’ve won a few awards here and there. Enough to show that I can do it when I really knuckle down and try to make the best knife I can. And I’ve sold a lot over the years, so then the next step was to teach. I started teaching a few people informally, which was great, but I found it took up a lot of my weekends and I wasn’t getting much out of it myself, other than the enjoyment of passing on information. I decided then that it was about time I started doing formal, structured classes, and that was four years ago. The market seems to be quite insatiable at the
moment. People in general are a lot more interested in knives now thanks to the kitchen knife market that’s really taken over with shows like MasterChef. And people are stuck behind their computer screens five days a week and want a creative outlet. They’re looking for things like how to process meats, how to make wine, how to carve spoons and make knives. People are looking for those life experiences and not everybody I teach goes on to make knives, I know that, but everybody’s enjoyed the class and had a great time, and I try to be as entertaining as I can as well as knowledgeable on the subject.
I’ve had a few people fly in from overseas. One from Dubai and one from Sweden. I’ve had people come down from Sydney, one from South Australia. But it’s mainly local people from Melbourne and surrounding areas coming up to Ballarat. It’s amazing – all walks of life, from 11-year-olds to old-timers; I’ve had young ladies, I’ve had guys, I’ve had a couple of people in wheelchairs. I don’t limit who I teach. If you’ve got that passion and drive and want to do it, then I’ll teach you. Ballarat is a great place to do my craft because it’s nice and cool, so even when you’re forging a knife in the summertime, you can get away with it.
We’ve also got a rich history of handcrafted goods and there are probably another three or four knifemakers that I can think of here. Some of them I’ve taught, some of them were here before I started. So it’s a bit of a little hotbed for knifemakers. Knifemaking has taken me all over the country.
I meet all these interesting people when I teach classes and it’s been a lifestyle for me. It takes time to get to the standard I’m at because you’ve just got to be dedicated enough to really want to improve with every knife you make, and that’s what I strive to do.
I think all up I’ve made close to 4000 knives. I think they say a master is somebody who’s done 10,000 hours in their craft. I’m well and truly over 10,000 hours. Whether I’m a master or not? I don’t know if I’d call myself that. Some people do. But anyway… Visit Parker Knives Australia’s Facebook page to find out more about Adam’s knives and workshops.