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Knife makers of the Dutch Knife Exhibition part 2

Picking up where I left off yesterday. Starting with a local that lives in the city where the show was held, Tiel.

Eric de Feijter is a stock removal knifemaker that does his own Heat Treat. His specialty is in knives that are heavily scandinavian influenced but he's also tried his hand at some scagelesque knives and knives influenced by american knife styles.

Here he is at his table.

A few of his knives, as you can see he does very well in both the full tang and hidden tang styles of construction and his work is VERY clean.

And every now and then he makes something outside of his own usual repetoire. We were talking about how every knifemaker worth his salt should at make a bowie sized blade at LEAST once.

Eric's own attempt is called "crocodile Hunter" and has a carbon steel blade and a maple burl handle:

Next up is bladesmith (forged blades) Tim Wagendorp who was across the isle from Eric.

Tim is very good at making a difficult but very cool style of knife. Over here we call is the semi-or-half integral. Where the bolster is a forged integral piece with the blade. Tim is the only person I know of that makes very small versions of this knife like this beauty with a partially hardened blade and Sambar Stag handle.

But every now and then Tim does a stock removal knife like this lovely kitchen knife in damascus

Sat next to Eric was his good friend Hennie van Ham

Hennie has a very unique way of building handles. He makes a jigsaw of smaller pieces of wood and constructs them as if they were a whole. I mentioned to him that he's the only one that I've ever seen that does this and he told me that yes it's cool...but a bit wasteful since he grinds about as much wood into dust as there is in the handle. So a 50% wastage on wood.

But the result can't be denied.

Next up is a maker I don't know much about and didn't get to talk to. Still he had some nice pieces on his table:

Cees Euser

He makes quite a nice friction folder though.

As well as very decent looking fixed blades

The last maker for the day is a (I believe) Belgian maker, Jos Wouters

He makes lovely traditional looking fixed blades, mainly with a polished brut de forge finish.

That's it for today. Tomorrow we'll start with a maker that the locals sometimes affectionately call "the human CNC machine".

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Comment by Brad T. on April 23, 2013 at 20:12: Outstanding pictorial and editorial. Thanks for the tour. Looking forward to tomorrow's installment.

Comment by J.J. Smith III on April 23, 2013 at 16:13: I think my favorite was the stag handled intergral from Tim.

Comment by Jan Carter on April 23, 2013 at 5:03: The stag by Eric caught my eye but those jigsaw handles by Hennie are spectacular. Ron I agree, on todays page if there were only one and I could take it home it would be the last pic by Jos

Comment by Alexander Noot on April 23, 2013 at 3:34: Thanks for the comments Ron. Yes, there were some awesome knives and knifemakers out there. Tomorrow we'll start getting a little bit into folders and folding knives. You'll be surprised what some of these guys produce.

Sadly, I do not know the weight of the Tim Wagendorp integral. However what Tim does (I suspect because I've done this a few times myself) is create a very functional a comfortable blade that's still small enough to pocket easily.

If the handle were more proportioned to the blade it would LOOK better, but handle worse.

And yes, Hennie's handles are amazing. I remember my jaw almost dropping on the floor the first time I saw one a couple of years back. He has done some very cool variations of that theme and I wish I had pictures of some of the pieces he's sold over the years.

Comment by Ron Cooper on April 23, 2013 at 3:07: Alex,

Thank you for shining a light on so many new knives and their makers. Definitely some beautiful work and different styles to appreciate. Eric's "Crocodile Hunter" is outstanding, with what appears to be a Scandi grind running the length of that truly massive blade. I really like the maple burl handle, also! A superb piece!

I'm curious about the balance on one of Tim's "half-integral's"? I guess that's why the handles are so long. To balance the weight of that heavy bolster? Did you get to handle any of his work?

And talk about a wow factor! The handle's on Hennie's knives are among some of the most unusual and beautiful that I have ever seen! I especially like this Damascus offering...

It's absolutely stunning!

And then, for exotic beauty, it would be hard to top those Impala handled knives from Cees Euser!

But after looking at all of these I think if I were to buy one, and ONLY one, it would have to be the last pic you posted in the batch -- That stag handled beauty by Jos Wouters! Wow! That just looks like a knife that I would actually use and get a lot of mileage out of.

Thanks for taking the time to put these posts together and to share your adventure with all of us. I can hardly wait for your next installment! Have a wonderfilled day and cheers, my friend!