Ferdi Steffens | Ferdi’s Knives

Basic Introduction
Since childhood I had a fascination with knives but were never allowed to carry one. As a poor appie I couldn’t afford the fancy cable knives to make my work easier and so had to make my own with used mechanical saw blades. I always loved to work with my hands (specifically making stuff with steel) and so making knives was natural evolution.

Favourite Handle Materials
Definitely natural material and specifically indigenous South African wood – wild olive, red bushwillow, leadwood, red ivory. Horn remains a wonderful material albeit stinky to process – kudu, buffalo, oryx and blesbok are top of the list.
On occasion I will use G10 as well but only for specific uses.

Favourite Steel
Stainless knife steels (N690, 14C28N, L4528, 12C27, M390 and damasteel)

Signature product
I do like to play with unusual “scrap” and combine it with good quality 7knife steel i.e. use rebar as a frame and combine it with a N690 cutting edge, or an old file shaped into a bowie style knife.

Technical
I only use a pedestal drill, belt sander and bandsaw as “special” tools. I don’t use pre-cut blanks, or laser-cut profiles, or a lathe, or a milling machine to build my knives. I also don’t use jigs and do all my shaping and grinding free-hand. The pouches I design individually and hand-stitch each one using the saddle stitch method.

The future
Knife-making will always remain a hobby and passion. If it becomes a full-time job I am afraid it will lose its appeal and kill the creative spirit within me. Single happy clients and a happy knifemaker will remain the aim…..