In the studio of Sander Miesse (1992) it's raining sparks and pounding heavy metal music. The dust mask goes off, the tips of his mustache are sharpened and the music goes off.
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The knife virus bit him early on. "The school principal called my mother on the mat. The man thought it was irresponsible that I always walked around with a knife. I was about four years old then. After that, my mother didn't let me for years come near a knife." His first knife, a kind of camping knife, he made from an old file.
"I was 19 and had no money to buy a knife. I had learned to work metal in school, but it turned out to be a narrow base for practice." He further developed his skills in the craft through books on internet forums and YouTube.
More than a decade ago he founded the knife factory Mknives. Sander did not design the logo in the blade himself. He woke it from hibernation. The logo comes from Auto-Miesse, a Belgian company of a family member, which produced buses and trucks between 1894 and 1972.
It takes about fifteen hours to make a complete knife. Of course, there is a price tag. But according to Sander, that's not too bad. He gives a lifetime warranty on every knife.
"I hate the throw-away society. A good, expensive knife lasts at least a lifetime. In the end, it is cheaper than a less good, cheaper knife that you have to replace every few years. And what could be better than a knife that passed down from generation to generation?"
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Fragments from the interview with Seasons Magazine (2020)
HET NIEUWSBLAD
HET LAATSTE NIEUWS
"You can even split a hair with my knives"
QUINDO
"Ever since I was a little boy I was crazy about weapons"
RADIO 2
AMBACHT IN DE KIJKER
"Finalist and Pearl of the Jury 2018"
ULULE
Winner "Grand Jury Price"
HANDMADE IN BELGIUM
"Ambassador Handmade In Belgium"
VOCATIO
"Laureate 2019"
