Editor Pick
Oaxaca's Renowned Knifemaker: Ängel Aguilar
- September 6, 2006
- Rated 5 of 5 by
Casa Machaya from Oaxaca, Mexico
With so many interesting stops on the Friday route from Oaxaca to Ocotlán, most tourists err in missing one of the most fascinating sites in town, the cuchillería of knifemaker Ängel Aguilar. Step hundreds of years back into history to find a Toledo steel-style hand-forging facility that makes custom knives and cutlery. One of Ängel’s claims to fame is having forged swords used by Arnold in "Conan the Barbarian."
Ängel uses only recycled metals, such as car springs and pistons, and discarded brass plumbing pieces to make his blades. Walk to the stone and clay hearth, where the maestro demonstrates how he heats the oven to 4,000 degrees using an old bellows that feeds air over charcoal. Watch the shaping and tempering process and see how blade sharpness and flexibility is achieved through the use of heat, cooling in water, and hammer and anvil. Marvel at him and an assistant so in tune with one another as they use rhythm to shape a blade, one hammering the steel a fraction of a second after the other, reminiscent of the sound of synchronized hoof movements of a cantering horse.
Levity peppers the demonstration when, while learning of the use of tropical wood, skin, and antler for fashioning handles, a foot-long piece of bone is held up Ängel, grinning that "de tourist bone make good handle." If that doesn’t lighten up your experience, then accept the offer of complimentary mezcal.
Next, move to the grinding wheels and learn how blades achieve a brilliant shine, not with the use of chrome or nickel, but rather through a process of using heat and friction, moving the blade over a metal spinning wheel covered with cotton and grades of handmade sandpaper, and then another of cardboard treated with filaments of wax. Witness another of Ängel´s talents, while he uses his experience in "the university of life" to engrave a blade using a protective coating of ink made of tar, tree sap, gasoline, and paint thinner, and thereafter immerses it in nitric acid. He’ll custom engrave your name and/or a limerick perhaps with flowing flowers and leaves.
You’ll be shown a variety of pieces awaiting personalization, such as bone-handled cake servers, a letter opener, different styles of hunting knife, or perhaps a set of cutlery. You’ll also see a number of collector pieces, like a dagger with a lengthy polished deer antler with brass finishes as the handle.
The "show" will hold the interest of everyone because of the intriguing process and the broad range of products: teenagers wanting a custom souvenir, the hunter seeking a wild boar engraved on a piece, a homemaker wanting unique dining pieces with engraved surname, or those looking for a personalized gift, such as a letter opener.
From journal The Magic of Oaxaca, Mexico