Avakian, Christian

My name is Christian AVAKIAN born in 1952, I am from Valence in the south of France. Since I was a young boy my passion was for the outdoors, fishing, hunting, most of the outdoor activities. My first job was flies fishing maker for about 10 years, in 1990 I started a new career as bow maker for hunting and leisure, and year after year I spread my name in the archery world. After different requests from my customers on making them a hunting bow and hunting knife matching in wood, I decided in 1992 to buy all the tools I would need to forge my own blades and start to make my first hidden tang knife. This was the launch of my future career as a custom knife maker. Since that day I acquired all the different skill to make straight knives and folders, but my real passion is making Damascus and I spend most of my time on making my own pattern, mosaic and multiple bar blades and after 21 years as a Damascus maker I still have the same passion. I have the chance after all these years to be considered as a Damascus artist in Europe and received in 2013 at the Paris Knife show the first prize for best Handmade Damascus straight knife maker.