N° 196

Consoli, Sergio

"Creating a knife by hand is what I consider a real art form. The passion for the cutting tools has always been in me and has grown with me until the decision to build my first knife alone. I started at 40, in 2003, practically self-taught, I had no experience of manual work, but I had done for many years the mechanical designer and this allowed me to know perfectly the technique and all the various stages of mechanical processing. Currently I am a member of The Italian Knife Guild, with a rank of Maestro. What I do now is what I consider my art form, creating "craft, hunting and collectible knives". They are knives made entirely by hand, only with an infinite series of files, a small drill for the holes and a sander for the concave grinding of the blades, nothing else. I create especially folding knives, which satisfy more my desire to build perfect mechanical objects and precisely the perfection in the smallest details, even inside where you can not see. Of course with the passing of the years I have refined my technique and currently I have improved even more. The mechanism inserting on the blade rotation a system of ball bearings, which guarantee an absolutely perfect seal and allow the blade to close and open without the least friction and with an incredible sweetness. With regard to the blades then, I'm experimenting with new types of hardening, which give hardness of 62-63 HRC and allow a thread seal and exceptional cutting quality for all types of use. I realize virtually all the knives on my initial design, they are all unique pieces made entirely by hand up into the smallest details, one at a time, so that, in my opinion, a knife can be considered "handmade". For the blades I prefer RWL34 steel which is sintered by powders and guarantees the total absence of internal defects, I sometimes use even the damask, both stainless and carbon. For the handles, one of the most beautiful materials is the mammoth tooth, which can be found in a variety of colors all beautiful, I also use the fossil ivory of mammoths, various roots, titanium and carbon fiber. Most of the knives, however, 'I do it completely in steel, to be able to then be engraved, always and strictly by hand, to transform even more' knife, into a real work of art ..."