There are different ways to forge knives by hand, but in general, there is steel that can be heated and forged, there are blades that can be opened, ground and polished, and there are handles that can be made and installed, which is a traditional skill – it requires a lot of skill, resistance, precision and strength.
Search google for pictures of "knife makers", and the photos of knife makers you see are all big men with thick beards. Hand forging knives isn't a skill you'd expect a 12-year-old to master, but some 12-year-olds are different. Meet Leila Haddad, a 12-year-old Australian female knifemaker.
12-year-old female knifemaker Lyra Haddad handcrafted kitchen knives for some of Australia's top celebrity chefs
Tiger father without dogs, in the knife master mentor father's words and hands to teach, she learned to operate the hydraulic press at the age of 5. She stood on a barrel and, on the orders of her father, Karim Haddad, turned on the hydraulic press that weighed 30 tons, repeatedly squeezed the steel heated to 1200 degrees Celsius, and made a layered Damascus steel blade.
"You want to have beautiful Damascus steel, you have to weld different steels together, and then you fold and squeeze it repeatedly, so all the steel sticks together to make Damascus steel..." explains Lyra Haddad.
▲ Female knifemaker Lyra Haddad showing a sharpener
At the age of six, Lyra Haddad, with the help of her father, Karim Haddad, an all-round knifemaker and blacksmith with more than 20 years of service, made a knife with the help of her father, Karim Haddad. At the age of 10, she made her first knife, a small hunting knife with a deer antler handle, and sold it to a famous collector from Europe.
Lyra Haddad makes Damascus steel knives in her father's studio
Lyra Haddad said: "He (a knife collector) attended [the Australian Knife Manufacturers Association Knife Show in Melbourne] and my father said: "This is what my 10-year-old daughter did and she wanted to use the money to buy a bicycle...". So the knife collector shouted to his wife in his room, "Take my wallet and buy a knife!" ”
The articulate, humorous seventh-grader has now made about 30 knives, including her most recent mini meat-cutting knife with a black terracotta finish and a black walnut handle, a beautiful craft.
Lyra Haddad grew up at the Tawa Valley Forge Knife School in a small town near Canberra, Australia's capital, as a toddler on a mission given by her father.
▲ Lyra shows off her hand-forged Damascus steel knife
Father Karim Haddad recalled: "I didn't encourage it at all – she climbed in on her own. ”。“ I remember her as a toddler girl with a layer of soot wrapped around her. For me, children are free to... It was very important to do what they were interested in, and she had been fascinated by hand forging knives since she was a child. ”
But it's very rare for that one brief interest to turn into a fully fledged passion and then into a nationally recognized, highly sought after skill — and in just six years, it's all the more rare.
Because of the age and skill of the female knifemaker, the knifemaker's mentor, father Karim Haddad, said: "At present, her order quantity is larger than mine". "She usually has four or five customers on the waiting list."
Her patrons include Ben Sheri, owner and chef at Attica Restaurant in Melbourne. "Lyra's knife is designed to be something you use every day of your life," Sheri said. "Aesthetically, they're beautiful, but they're wear-resistant and practical."
Knife-making may seem like an unusual pursuit for girls, but Lyra Haddad sees it as an opportunity to create something of value.
"The end result was amazing — wow, I've done it," she said. "I wonder if other people will use it and find it useful.
▲ Lyra displayed forged steel on the spot
Lyra Haddad joked: "If you buy a $15 knife from the supermarket, yes, it only sells for $15, but it works for about six months." And the knives we design and manufacture, if they're properly maintained, then they can last 100 years or more, but we haven't tested them yet."
When you talk about a child making knives, you naturally doubt the safety of all this.
▲ Lyra's handmade kitchen knife works are a bit cute
"It's not dangerous unless you're stupid," Lyra said. "If you are safe and wise... If you do the right thing and follow the steps, then it's not dangerous. ”
Of all Lyra's qualities, her pragmatic nature and self-reliance are the most prominent.
Lyra's father, Karim, said: "Just before she went to preschool, she decided to make her own lunch and I haven't made her lunch since." "I think she made a salmon pasta this morning and put it in a box... Then she was gone. ”
Lyra loves to cook (yes, her own knife can run) and play the piano, and it was her creative motivation that led her to be one of 20 speakers at last year's WAV party (the WAW party is an acronym for "What a Wonderful World" designed to inspire people in the food industry and beyond), curated by Attica Restaurant owner and chef Ben Sherry.
Lyra told an audience of about 400 people about the importance of handmade knives and the stories that surrounded them. She teased during the 10-minute conversation: "Think about how many hands have touched a knife, young and old. Think about how many Sunday roasts there have been, and it's been chopped up with a knife. Think about how many fingers the knife accidentally cut."
▲ 6-year-old Lyra and her father Karim Haddad, an all-round knife maker, in the Talva Valley Forge Studio
"Her response after she spoke was thunderous applause," Sheri said. "I think it was one of the two or three most important speeches of the day."
Sheri fills his restaurant with handicrafts, and he believes the people behind the products are just as important.
In early 2014, when Sheri and his team went to the Talva Valley Forge to collect knives, he met Lyra.
"I was really attracted to Lyra's personality and her commitment to the craft was really strong," he said.
Sheri also bought a hunting knife from Lyra, a precious item he kept in his personal collection drawer.
"I can connect with (Lyra's family) in the way they support each other and the way they support passion — no matter how unusual that is," he said.
While some 12-year-olds entertain themselves with clips from Katie Perry's films, Lyra is staring at a $10,000 Japanese knife.
"Now I make a lot of different knives," she said. "Sometimes, other things get in my way, I don't use a knife for weeks, but I do do do it often."
She helps her father teach most weekends, and she teaches new junior blacksmith classes during school holidays. "It's great to share knowledge with other people," she said.
▲ Lyra shows a small folding knife made at the age of 11
Lyra is a regular visitor to Australia's National Knife Show, where she brings 8 to 10 knives and often sells them out.
Her father Karim laughed and said: "She has a male classmate and she has been competing with him and we try to keep them together as much as possible because Lyra always sells faster than him and he is very angry about it".
She's very good at making an impression. Before the death of a knife maker she knew, she had given her a box of special hilt materials he had collected. Karim, the father, said: "At that time, the knife maker was very ill and could not live long, but he really hoped that she could continue to make some knives out of these things." ”。
While Lyra's long-term dream isn't yet possible — "I don't even know what to do tomorrow," she jokes — she plans to do it: keep making things and honing her craft.
"It's a challenge to be perfect at every step," she said. "Dad said that to really be good at something, you need to forge 100 knives."
Well, here's the next goal.