My name is Wollie Wolmarans, Knifemaker based in eMalahleni (Witbank), Mpumalanga in South Africa.

Since a young age I had an interest in knives and was fascinated by the fact that my father and both my grandfathers carried knives permanently. Those knives were used in the kitchen, to cut biltong, to skin electrical wires, to carve wood, open parcels and even to clean their finger nails.

As a child I never owned a knife and I bought my first Joseph Rodgers knife when I started working. Over the years I collected some knives, all factory made, but it was only at a later stage that I became aware of homemade knives. Given the fact that I was blessed with a God given talent to create objects with my hands, I decided to try my hand at making my own knives. I did some research and applied for some training by a professional knife maker Gawie Herbst and his late son Tinus.

During the course you are only trained the basics of knife making. After the course I made a few basic knives which did not turn out too bad. That was when I decided to make knives. I started making knives as a hobby in 2010, and in 2013 when I went on pension I started making knives on a full-time basis.

The knives I make is by means of stock removal. I buy the blade material, cut it out, drill all the holes and harden the steel and temper it. I then hollow grind the blades free hand. After the grinding I spend a lot of time on hand sanding. I sand the blades to a mirror or satin finish. I occasionally do stone wash or acid wash if the client prefer.

I design and construct high quality custom built knives. Every new knife that I build, I strive to make it better than the previous knife. I also use customer’s input in designing a knife.

To me a knife is not just a tool, I consider every knife as a piece of art. When you buy a knife from me, you also buy a piece of my heart and soul. Every knife bears my name and I am proud of every knife and am not ashamed to sell it.

I design and build fixed blade knives, folders and occasionally art knives. My speciality is Gentleman’s folders. For the construction of my folders I mainly use Titanium, which is strong and durable as well as light in weight.