Knife-maker steels the tools of his trade
Robbie Ferreira demonstrates his passion for fashioning blades
THE CRUELlines of a good blade hold a special fascination and the artisans who have the skill to make them stand out are widely admired. And this is especially true when such blades are also functional tools.
For experienced knife-maker Robbie Ferreira, this last bit is even more important than all-round good looks.
Ferreira spends his days at his wellequipped, but humble, workshop at his home in Kleinmond, shaping, hardening, tempering and finishing a wide variety of attractive knives.
He produces keen blades of a multitude of shapes of gleaming high-quality stainless steel from Sweden, and Damascus steel from the US.
And he is quick to point out that none of his knives is made just for show.
“I just don’t make knives for display. My knives must be functional, they must do what they are supposed to do and they must last,” the former Pretoria hardware shop owner and Karoo farm boy says.
“There is no meaning to a blade made just for the sake of display. Even if they are going to be on display, they should still be completely functional when the need arises.”
Which is why a replica of a World War I American military trench knife he made in Damascus steel, for example, has all the correct detail and attributes an original trench knife had back in the day, including the slots in the knuckle guard that were used to turn away an enemy bayonet.
Which is also why the folding knives he makes are his special pride and joy. One specific model he calls his Rolls-Royce.
“I want to have a customer come back to me and tell me after a year or two that the knife is still working perfectly. I get that with my Rolls-Royce. They last.”
Ferreira calls his knife-making business Inyathi, the buffalo. A portrait of tough- ness, of strength.
“I’ve actually been making knives since I was a boy as I grew up on a farm in the Karoo. Hunting, guns, knives, horses, all were part of my life since before I went to school. I shot my first kudu before I went to school.
“My wife works with leather. She does mostly belts, but also some bags. We are both qualified potters, having had the training at Pretoria Technikon. But knife making is what I really wanted to do.”
Ferreira sold his hardware shop in Pretoria and made the move to Kleinmond permanent in 2000.
He built the house at Kleinmond before that, in 1993, however. His roomy workshop, also on the Kleinmond property, he built with his own hands.
“I got a friend and my wife to help me put up the roof trusses, because that you cannot do on your own, but the rest I did all by myself.”
Going through the steps of making a knife, Ferreira demonstrated how he hardened and tempered a blade before hollow grinding it and creating the blade’s edge for sharpening.
“Some knife makers do all the work before hardening and tempering, because it is easier to work the steel when it is not so hard, but then you can get warping during the heating process and your rejects percentage is higher. It takes me longer to grind the blades after hardening and I use more sanding belts, but I make sure the blades do not pick up too much heat again in the grinding process and I have no rejects.”
Ferreira believes a knife is built, not made. Like a house. He prefers horn and bone for handles, but also uses wild olive wood on occasion.
“I am not satisfied with the steel we get here in South Africa. I import 12C27 stainless steel from Sweden. It is like 440C, but has enough carbon and I harden it to 57 or 58 Rockwell hardness. The Damascus steel I import from the US and I harden it to 66, it is very hard.
“I love doing this. One is very blessed when you can do what you want to do and make a living with it,” he says.