Gonçalves Luiz Gustavo

13 May 2014 Author : Alessandra De Santis

Luiz Gustavo Gonçalves is a Brazilian professional photographer whose passion for knives dates back to when he was a child; indeed when he was 5 his uncle (who also loves knives ) gave him a hunting knife. Since then he has always carried knives around with him and, from such an early age, to appreciate them.

In 2010 he joined the SBC forum (Sociedade Brasileira dos Cuteleiros - Brazilian Bladesmith Association) where he met a bladesmith who was organizing knife making courses near his city. So Luiz decided that he would like to learn to make knives and proposed an exchange: he would photograph the teacher's knives in exchange for knife making lessons. In this way, Luiz embarked on the road to learning this beautiful art.
In early 2012 he started to make his knives and along the way he had the good fortune to meet Master Eduardo Berardo (Master knifemaker of CIC - Corporazione Italiana Coltellinai - in Milan), who accepted Luiz into his classes. So, from time to time, Luiz would take his motorcycle and travel for 500km to Master Berardo's home, where he spent the weekend watching Berardo's work and learning his techniques and methods.

Nowadays Luiz makes his knives, trying to improve designs, finishes and his skills everyday. He uses mostly 5160 forged steel, and his knives range from small hunters to big bowies (which are his favourite kind of knives). Handle materials used by Luiz range from natural Brazilian hardwood (Jacaranda, Violeta do Para), to highly figured stabilized woods and Giraffe Bones, but he is always experimenting with new materials.

As George Bernard Shaw said “People who progress in life are those who are busy to find the circumstances they want and, if not found, they create them” and Luiz has certainly created his knife making by his determination.

lgustavo.com