The "Gaucho" Knife

Pàdruig said:
That is shaping up really nice - that mesquite looks amazing. I am looking forward to seeing how you approach the leather.
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The more I look at the Gaucho sheaths the more confusing they get! That's gonna be challenging but a good learning experience.
 
Hello everyone here in the south of Brazil, because we are close to Argentina and Uruguay we have many similar cultural aspects, so much so that here we are also known as Gauchos in the rest of Brazil.

The culture of knives is very strong due to the raising of cattle and sheep in the state and the work carried out on farms.

Much of the style of these knives developed from Spanish colonization in southern South America.

One particular early style was knives made from sheep shearing shears. Even today old English scissors are highly sought after because of the quality of the material.

Here some examples.

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Horsewright said:
Yeah I'm wearing the edge cut from a 120 ceramic on my right index finger. Taking along time to heal. Seems like I open it up again every time I reach in my pocket for my keys.

A Gaucho story, there has been some discussion here about how light and fast in the hand the gaucho knife is.

I have a good friend that was Hollywood A lister back in the 80s. This has allowed him to indulge his passion for hunting all over the world. He relayed this story to me over a glass of single malt some years back.

He was bird hunting in Argentina. They'd had one of those legendary Argentinan days where they needed ammo by the case there were so many birds and were headed back to the estancia (lodge) for the evening. He was riding in a truck and they were cruising down this dirt road. One of the guide's dogs was running free ahead of the truck. In the distance they could see a gaucho, with his saddle on his shoulder, walking towards them. As they got closer the dog became aggressive and started at the gaucho. My friend said that the gaucho dropped his saddle, reached behind and whipped out his knife and was ready to kill the dog before the saddle had hit the ground. My friend said it was literally the fastest thing he'd ever seen and this was from a guy that use to spar with Benny The Jet! Fortunately the guide was able to call off the dog and all was well. So anyhoo thats my gaucho story.
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De Bortoli said:
Hello everyone here in the south of Brazil, because we are close to Argentina and Uruguay we have many similar cultural aspects, so much so that here we are also known as Gauchos in the rest of Brazil.

The culture of knives is very strong due to the raising of cattle and sheep in the state and the work carried out on farms.

Much of the style of these knives developed from Spanish colonization in southern South America.

One particular early style was knives made from sheep shearing shears. Even today old English scissors are highly sought after because of the quality of the material.

Here some examples.

whatsapp-image-2022-04-22-at-102738-1_640x640+fill_ffffff.jpeg


faca_tesoura_tosquia_3__19608_zoom.jpg.webp


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This is absolutely fascinating to me and something I'd never heard or even considered. It explains so much about the point profile on a lot of Gaucho knives. Thanks for posting that and I'd be really interested in any other information you have to share.

I have an old pair of Keen Kutters I might have to play with some day.
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Redmeadow Knives said:
This is absolutely fascinating to me and something I'd never heard or even considered. It explains so much about the point profile on a lot of Gaucho knives. Thanks for posting that and I'd be really interested in any other information you have to share.

I have an old pair of Keen Kutters I might have to play with some day.
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Tanks Sir.

Search for Facas de tesoura tosquia
 
Horsewright said:
The Gauchos do have some similarities in their work and their horse gear too. One of the cultural similarities particularly to the Californio style of western horsemanship and the Gauchos is finely braided rawhide items of horse gear. There is an organization called the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association (TCAA). Master saddlemakers, bit and spurmakers, rawhide braiders and silversmiths. Think ABS Mastersmiths but much more exclusive and harder to get into. Pablo Lozano is one of the few of the master braiders in this outfit and he is a Gaucho from Argentina. Here is a bosal that I was using as a prop for this pic of this martingale/breastcollar I'd made. The bosal is a noseband that goes around the horses nose and is used in the training stages of a finished horse instead of a bit in the horse's mouth. This is braided rawhide.

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And a four strand rawhide reata or rope:

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A close up pic of my reins when I was conditioning them:

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Taken attendance on what cattle we've got in and who were missing.

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You can see my rawhide braided reins and also Ol Spud is wearing a bosalita (small bosal) under his bridle. The bosalita is a mark of his education as a finished horse. It too is rawhide and both items were braided by my friend Vince Donelly.

Funny gaucho story. We had a customer years ago. He was a German guy that was gauchoing in Paraguay. He'd call and place orders over the phone. We eventually met him in person too. There use to be a show called The Californios and we would have a booth there every year. One year he and a bunch of cohorts flew up for the show. Not unusual as this was THE show and there'd be folks from all over the world there. We did some trading in fact with him and got a latigo braided bosal from him for a knife. Anyhoo, he had called and ordered many times, usually wildrags such as I'm wearing here. We call them wildrags not scarves and my wife made a lot of them, thousands over the years, as she was famous for a special kind of silk we use to get to make them from:

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So he calls and he's talking to my wife and ordering some wildrags. His English was decent but not great and a strong accent. Back in the day we had a paper catalog we'd send out and he'd tell Nichole which colors he wanted while looking at the catalog. The conversation kinda went like this. "OK Nichole, and now I wants a fu..s ya." "Excuse me?" was Nichole's reply. "Ya know I wants a fu..s ya, right there in the catalog by the blue." "Oh, Ok, ya want a fuschia one, got it, ok I can send ya a fuschia one." Fuschia sounded an awful lot like f...s ya the way he said it!
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Yes, the horse culture is very strong in the South of South America.

The horse is so important that in the past the gaucho "cowboys" used boots made in a very particular way from horses. They were the boots called Botas garrao de Potro.
The pictures show how they were made.

I believe this was learned from the Charrua Indians who rode very well on horseback after the introduction of horses by the Spanish.

0064074_regular_joao-antunes-historiador-escritor-carretero-regiao-das-missoes-bossoroca-riogrande-gaucho-forno-de-barro-(6).jpg


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De Bortoli said:
Yes, the horse culture is very strong in the South of South America.

The horse is so important that in the past the gaucho "cowboys" used boots made in a very particular way from horses. They were the boots called Botas garrao de Potro.
The pictures show how they were made.

I believe this was learned from the Charrua Indians who rode very well on horseback after the introduction of horses by the Spanish.

0064074_regular_joao-antunes-historiador-escritor-carretero-regiao-das-missoes-bossoroca-riogrande-gaucho-forno-de-barro-(6).jpg


images


96127591-ac0d-4540-9b55-032ba0247f44_garrao.jpg
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That is very interesting. I knew of those botas and had seen pics of them but did not know they were made from the horse. Early Californios wore a some what similar bota but I've never heard of it coming from the horse.
 
That was really cool how sheers can be re-purposed to be a knife. I liked the Goofy cartoon.
 
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cbach8tw said:
That was really cool how sheers can be re-purposed to be a knife. I liked the Goofy cartoon.
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Really thought that was interesting too, I'm always fascinated to find out the source of something, it always stems from a basic tool or need and can sometimes turn into something completely different though in this case they were refined into beautiful and functional blades.
 
I assume they are decent carbon steel to get a good edge on them. I like your creation, it turned out nice.
 
Can we a pic of the whole knife? Appreciated. Especially wanted to see how the rounded handle and butt cap looks to the whole knife, aesthetically speaking of course. :)
 
Thanks guys, it's gonna be an interesting knife I think.

I picked up a guillotine with some fullering dies that should make isolating integrals a lot easier. I've got a 2' by 6" by 1" piece of steel that I found on the property a long time ago that I can use to make other types of dies for it.
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