Knife Styles

• Art Knives
• Hunting Knives
• Chef / Kitchen Knives
• Bird / Trout Knives
• Biltong Knives
• Slipjoint Folders

About Stefan Diedericks

I made my first handmade knife when I was about 10 years old. I took an old file from my father’s workshop, striped the plastic handle off and ground it to shape on a bench grinder.

At that time I had no knowledge of heat treatment or anything else that went into making a good knife. The maintenance manager at the company that my father worked for advised me on how to heat treat the blade, but I thought he was mad. There was no way that I was going to stick this blade, which I had worked so hard on to get it nice and shiny, in a fire.

Twenty years later in 2001 I was slightly wiser, and I then knew much more about steel and heat treatment, so it was time to try and make my second knife. This time the result was much better.

One year later I attended a fixed blade knife course with Andrè Thorburn and later with Gawie and Thinus Herbst, who are all members of the Knifemakers’ Guild of Southern Africa. Thanks to their guidance, my knife making has improved by light-years.

In both 2007 & 2011, I was awarded the first-place prize in the bi-annual competition for non-guild members at the annual Knifemakers’ Guild of Southern Africa Guild Show. And in 2009 I was awarded the third prize at the same competition.

I currently live in Mandeni, a small town on the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. I have a small workshop at home where I make my custom knives part time, some of which can be seen on this site.

In 2012 I was the co-founder of the North Coast Knife Makers Club, of which I was the chairman for the first 3 years and am still an active member.