On The Cutting Edge

A reunion, friends, family, loved ones… We all have stories of a moment that changed our lives…

Born in Cape Town, growing up in the Northern Suburbs, Jerald was from a young age passionate about knives. There was just something about the elegance of cold steel, beautifully grained wood and that connection with primal man that fascinated him.

A first own space. A first own garage. Not for cars though but for equipment to carefully craft, shape and make his own knives. Soon Jerald’s passion grew from a hobby to a career. He first had a shop in Tygervalley and then, for the next decade, in the High Street Shopping Village in Durbanville.

Until that fateful moment when the Oxford Hotel reunion was held at the Oxford Arms pub in Durbanville. Armed robbers stormed in and Jerald was shot…

“Right then and there we decided to get out of the city and look for a place in the country. We started our mission and sold up everything, closed the shop and after looking at a few places came to see a little house on a farm just outside Porterville and fell totally in love with the town and now two years later we are still in love and happier than ever.”

Jerald’s style of knifemaking is distinctly ‘old school’, made from recycled old saw blades and exotic hardwood handles.

Jerald’s passionate and beautiful knives, heirlooms in their own right, can be found at the Biscuit Mill Neighbourhood Goods Market’ in Woodstock on Saturdays, at the ‘Palms Market’ in Woodstock on Saturdays and at ‘Grootte Post Market’ in Darling on the last Sunday of the summer months.

A special range is also available at the Olive Branch Deli in the Lifestyle Centre, Kloof Street and the Spier Wine Estate.

Follow this craftsman on his Facebook page - JERALD BLABER KNIFE MAKER.

Or if you prefer to speak to the man himself, phone him; 078 657 2843