Morocco knives and buying knives while traveling

DocRon · Post by **DocRon** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:16 pm

Later this year, my wife and I will be visiting Morocco with a tour group. Are there any special knives made there? Also, any suggestions on packing knives in check-in luggage. Will they disappear during baggage checks? I've packed multi-tools and Swiss army knives before and have never lost one, but I'm wondering about the likihood of "losing" a unique knife. Thanks.
Ron

jonet143 · Post by **jonet143** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:41 pm

lots of "tourist" knives sold there as genuine antiques. beware.

Hukk · Post by **Hukk** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 10:07 pm

Might be a good spot to purshase some Thuya Burl (wood) there for customizing knives or other projects, commonly used in boxes.

Yeah, it's always the first thing I think of. Stunning when done right.

Thuya Burl is harvested by digging the burl out of the ground in Morrocco. Depending on quality, I've seen it sell for $14 to $30.00 per lb here. It is a dense oily wood that requires a bit of care to get great results.

Ringmaster · Post by **Ringmaster** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:38 pm

Isn't that where the briar wood, for pipe bowls comes from ? I dunno, but I think I heard that somewhere ?

Wouldn't that make a pretty handle ?

Have a good trip ! Take Care,

JR

Hukk · Post by **Hukk** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:04 pm

Ringmaster wrote:Isn't that where the briar wood, for pipe bowls comes from ? I dunno, but I think I heard that somewhere ?

Wouldn't that make a pretty handle ?

Have a good trip ! Take Care,

JR

Yes Briar grows in the Mediteranean climates of Morrocco, Spain, France, Italy, and I think Greece amongst others.

Yep, I agree that would make a great looking handle.

stancaiman · Post by **stancaiman** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 4:35 pm

sorry, no specials knives in morocco.
perhaps you can find peul or tuaregs knives in the south morocco but be careful : there is lot of new old-knives specials tourist.
you can have a look to this link : some africans knives are shows
http://lulef.free.fr/html/body_armes_africaines.html

DocRon · Post by **DocRon** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:27 am

Thank you for the feedback.

Do you think Morocco will have French or Spanish knives?

Any thoughts on safely getting them back to the U.S.?

Hukk · Post by **Hukk** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:43 am

DocRon wrote:Thank you for the feedback.

Do you think Morocco will have French or Spanish knives?

Any thoughts on safely getting them back to the U.S.?

Myself, I think I would ship them home. My last flight they went through the luggage and all was there. No problem with the laptop as a carry on.

I put the laptop AC adaptor, a cord to download pictures to the laptop, a portable printer and all it's wiring, cell phone and charger plus a cigarette lighter plug in charger for cell phone, and digital camera with battery charger as well as a DC to AC converter to charge printer, camera, laptop, batteries and cell phone while driving.

Man, I think that little printer and mass of wires going everywhere MUST have made them paranoid. There was a lot of wires come to think of it.

orvet · Post by **orvet** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:55 pm

Hukk wrote:
Ringmaster wrote:Isn't that where the briar wood, for pipe bowls comes from ? I dunno, but I think I heard that somewhere ?

Wouldn't that make a pretty handle ?

Have a good trip ! Take Care,

JR
Yes Briar grows in the Mediteranean climates of Morrocco, Spain, France, Italy, and I think Greece amongst others. Yep, I agree that would make a great looking handle.

Absolutely correct gentlemen.

There was a great deal of briar that came from Algeria as well, though I am told those fields were pretty much depleted many years ago.

Briar is the root burl of the White Heather plant, which grows through out Europe, though the only place it is good for making pipes is where it grows in an arid climate and rocky soil. That causes it to grow very slowly & to be very dense. It takes about 75 years for a burl to get big enough to make even one pipe from it. The best burls are several hundred years old.

Being a burl, it is not uncommon to find where the burl has grown around a rock. The story is told of one cutter who sawed open a burl to discover a small mummified snake in a void in the burl. The burl had grown completely around the snake. I believe I saw the picture of that burl in Alfred Dunhill's book, "The Gentle Art of Smoking."

Other sources of good briar are Sardinia, Corsica and pretty much any area around the Mediterranean where they have an arid climate & rocky soil.

Dale
Information from my misspent youth selling & smoking pipes.

stancaiman · Post by **stancaiman** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:30 pm

DocRon wrote:Thank you for the feedback.

Do you think Morocco will have French or Spanish knives?

Any thoughts on safely getting them back to the U.S.?

perhaps French knives : the douk-douk (see http://www.hommedesbois.fr/couteau/cout ... uteaux.htm for pictures) knife was originally made for North Africa (Morocco, Algeria).

for getting them back to US, the only way is your luggage

stancaiman · Post by **stancaiman** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:31 pm

orvet wrote:
Hukk wrote:
Ringmaster wrote:Isn't that where the briar wood, for pipe bowls comes from ? I dunno, but I think I heard that somewhere ?

Wouldn't that make a pretty handle ?

Have a good trip ! Take Care,

JR
Yes Briar grows in the Mediteranean climates of Morrocco, Spain, France, Italy, and I think Greece amongst others. Yep, I agree that would make a great looking handle.
Absolutely correct gentlemen. There was a great deal of briar that came from Algeria as well, though I am told those fields were pretty much depleted many years ago.

Briar is the root burl of the White Heather plant, which grows through out Europe, though the only place it is good for making pipes is where it grows in an arid climate and rocky soil. That causes it to grow very slowly & to be very dense. It takes about 75 years for a burl to get big enough to make even one pipe from it. The best burls are several hundred years old.

Being a burl, it is not uncommon to find where the burl has grown around a rock. The story is told of one cutter who sawed open a burl to discover a small mummified snake in a void in the burl. The burl had grown completely around the snake. I believe I saw the picture of that burl in Alfred Dunhill's book, "The Gentle Art of Smoking."

Other sources of good briar are Sardinia, Corsica and pretty much any area around the Mediterranean where they have an arid climate & rocky soil.

Dale
Information from my misspent youth selling & smoking pipes.

the more fine briar used for Pipe is coming from corsica

orvet · Post by **orvet** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 6:11 pm

You are right Stan.
Also, there are some very fine pipes are made in St Claude France. I have some fine smoking Chacom Pipes. IIRC, briar pipes were first made in the St Claude region.

Dale

PS- To bring this back to knives, (having collected pipes for 20 years it is an easy tangent for me to take),

I am sure briar would make nice looking & durable knife handles, but I think it may be difficult to find any of the better burls as the pipe makers probably buy then up rather quickly. However, one might find some nice Plateau blocks that would be large enough for handles. One might try companies who supply the pipe making industry.

stancaiman · Post by **stancaiman** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 6:43 pm

aurillac (French center ) knife with briar handles