As an early birthday treat from Dad & Mom, we spent the day making knives on a farm near Barrytown yesterday. This blog post will be updated with more info in a few days’ time, but here’s a sneak preview of how the knives went from a length of unworked steel to a finished work of art:
Update on the knife-making process at Barrytown Knifemaking: our hosts Steve and Robin talked us through each step of the process. It was a very interesting and informative day and is highly recommended for anyone visiting South Island. In addition to Sarah and I, there were 3 others making knives that day. Steve and Robin have an outdoor workshop (under cover) which is stocked with a furnace, several anvils, belt sanders, drills, jigsaws, and other nifty tools. There were other fun distractions, like axe-throwing, a giant swing and various friendly animals around the place. It was a full day, starting at 09h30 and finishing at 16h00, with lunch included. The day finished off with some bubbly drinks to celebrate.
Apparently the steel comes from titanium-rich black iron sand on the west coast of North Island of NZ. After the refining process which includes the removal of most of the titanium, you’re left with almost 100% pure steel called “mild steel”. We started the day with a strip each of mild steel approx. 6mm thick, 30mm wide and 400mm long. The steel strips (bolted into a length of steel “handle”) were placed into a blazing furnace which is fired up with coke extracted locally. The coke in the furnace adds carbon to the steel – this is important to give the blade strength. The strengthening process was demonstrated by placing a strip of steel in a vice where it was easily twisted. However a forged blade in the vice could not be twisted by a huge policeman.Hammering the red-hot steel on the anvil was hard work but rewarding to see the blade taking shape.
Once the desired basic shape was achieved, the blades were unbolted and removed from the steel handles and cooled. The water in which they were cooled was nitrate-rich (thanks to duck poo) which further strengthens the blade. After cooling came plenty of grinding, cooling (rinse, repeat). Small holes were drilled in the blade handle and locally-sourced rimu handles were cut and joined to the blade handle with brass pins and superglue. Later on, once the glue had set, the brass pins and wooden handles were ground down to the desired shape and then sanded carefully. Then followed a very time-consuming process of hand-polishing the blades and handles to produce the final results. We were delighted to have gone from zero experience to having produced a couple of very attractive knives.
Mom, Dad and Eloise occasionally popped in to the workshop to observe, but spent the rest of the day exploring the property and playing with the animals (dogs, horses, shetland ponies, chickens, ducks, cattle and a couple of dancing parrots).
