Liam, Werribee, VIC. Being an Architect by trade, I’d never really had any interest in making things with my hands. I liked grinding coffee, not 9” angle grinders.
However, during one of the Covid lockdowns, I found myself stood down from work and I started looking for things to do. One of those things was that I decided to build some flower beds, problem being, I had zero skills to make that happen. Enter YouTube.
What started as a simple, “how to build a garden bed”, led the YouTube algorithm to feed me a bunch of making videos and tutorials. One of which was how to make a knife with simple tools.
Having finished making some of the jankiest garden beds ever seen, I thought, that looks easy, let’s have a go. That lead to me making my first knife, that I affectionately call, ejecto shanko. It was horrible and fell apart, but I still have it to this day as a reminder of where I started. It may have been terrible, but making that piece of steel, hooked me with a passion.
One of the other interests that popped up during Covid, was cooking. My entire adult life, cooking meals had been a chore. Eat to survive kind of mentality. However with all this time on my hands, I started making more elaborate meals and really enjoying preparing food. This, with the knife making, pushed me to make myself a kitchen knife. Again, it was awful. But I learned and I loved the process.
5 years later, I’ve combined my design background, passion for colours, food and also my flair for the eccentric, and channeled it into my moniker, Simple Little Knives. Because that’s what I love doing, making simple little knives that everyday people will love and enjoy using.