When the Wood Expo opens its doors on Sept. 15 in Sechelt, knife-maker George Coetzee will be one of the many artisans in wood to show their hand-crafted work. Most of his custom-made knives have handles of spalted maple or alder – his favourite local woods – or of some other exotic woods such as rosewood, black ivory or purple heart.
Coetzee’s Sechelt workshop brims with hunting and skinning knives, large and small chef’s knives and a few paring knives. He is a perfectionist. His knives aren’t cheap, ranging from $400 to $800, but each one has been carefully crafted, is of his own design and will last a lifetime.
“We use a knife every day of our lives,” he says. The popular TV show Forged in Fire shows blade-smiths forging the steel they will use, but Coetzee does not forge. He starts by buying the best professional knife steel, something that will keep its edge. The trick is in the hand grinding because each side of the blade must be a mirror image of the other, requiring some manual dexterity to hold the blade just so for an even grind.
“That last 10 per cent of the knife-making process is where 50 per cent of knives fail,” he says. It’s easy to blow the entire day’s work at that point. Then the blade must be attached to the handle using a brass or stainless steel bolster.
“I always balance my knives,” he noted, by drilling out holes in the steel to reduce the weight. “The art is in using the right steel, the right shape, and it should fit in your hand like a glove.”
Coetzee is a self-taught cutler, crafting knives professionally since 1983. He first learned how to make knives in South Africa, and as a geologist and a hunter, he used his own knives to jerky meat in the wild. After moving to Vancouver in 2000 and to Sechelt in 2015, he set up his workshop in a garage and sold at the Sechelt Farmers’ and Artisans’ Market among other venues under the name Gladiator 1 Custom Knives. He can be reached at 604-351-4966.
Last year’s Wood Expo brought a crowd of 1,300 people to the Seaside Centre, Sechelt, for the one-day exposition of wood. It’s free to attend and runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 15. Stop by to feel the cutting edge and say hello to the knife-maker.
