I depart May 5th for RSA with my first ever African hunt planned in the Limpopo area. It will be a 7 day plains game hunt.

I will have 3-4 days prior in Cape Town and two days following in Johannesburg. I collect knives to small degree and was wondering where would be a good place to purchase one in Africa?

What kind of quality can be expected (not that it really makes a difference) and what would be most representative of being from Africa?

Thanks in advance for suggestions.
Fred

I have never seen a knife from Africa sufficiently well made or sufficiently interesting from a style or tradition standpoint to buy one. Of course, Africa is a big place and I haven't been everywhere on the continent. Generally you see poor steel (frequently just recovered scrap metal, although leaf springs can provide some good stuff), poor workmanship or tourist level items recently invented with some style point to give it a hint of local color. Like I say, I haven't been everywhere but I don't think you should expect much. While you are there, if you have the opportunity, watch skinners work on an animal. They will "sharpen" their knives frequently on the nearest rock. One big mistake is to give a skinner a well made knife. In a couple of weeks it will be worthless.

Wink, you are optimistic. Give my tracker a custom knife and after one sharpening session with a rock most clients simply give it to him . There are some superb custom knife makers in South Africa- frind a back issue of Magnum that covers the Easter knife show! some dam fine stuff.

A few good makers in Zim, but overpriced.

On the traditional level, the shangaan or Shona knives with their bulky wooden sheaths are interesting. Every collector should have one.

Ganyana, I'm glad to hear there are some good knifemakers in Southern Africa and Zim. I didn't spend any time looking at knives when I was there last (accept for the average utilily knives in the cooperative in Hoedspruit where I made a brief stop. The rest of the time I was hunting). As you go North it's a wasteland until you get to Ethiopia/Northern Africa and I haven't been too impressed with what they turn out.

Fred,

Try memebers of the Knife Making Guild of SA at the following address:

http://www.kgsa.co.za/guildmembers.php?sid=c9e469a0c22e13cac9fec3d29aaa9a12

If you're interested in custom knives, Steve Mackrill
is one of the best known custom knife makers in SA.

If you're talking 'indigenous' products, they are just junk, made from soft steel.

If you're talking 'decorative' knives, there are galleries in Jo'burg that sell that kind of stuff. The SAA in-flight magazine carried ads for them last time I flew them.

George

Thanks for all of the replies. I "will" follow up on the individual web sites and hopefully be in an area I can visit with them.

George - One of the requisites of my small collection is they must be usable although that isn't the intention.

Thanks again. Fred

George and Dave - Great sites. I will be in Johannesburg where MacKrill is located and after a very quick lookthrough found one I was interested in from the Limpopo area. A George Baartman.

I will include any visits I make as part of my hunting report after the trip.

Fred

Fred, Look at the very good website for the knife-making guild. Anyone with a 27 21 telephone number is in Capetown and the 27 11 are in Joburg with 27 12 in Pretoria a mere 45 miles away. Email in advance to see how to get to see what's in inventory.
Regards, Tim

Another great place to find custom knife makers is on the website www.knifeart.com. Several South Africans post knives on the site like Arno Bernard and others. Take a look, there is no better way to kill an hour or so!