My Knives
All my knives are individually crafted and hand made. Even making similar knives there will be different them due to the very nature of my work.
Every customer can say that they have a truly unique piece.

Nowadays I'm making knives exclusively in a variety of damascus steels that I forge myself on my shop. I specially like San Mai damascus as it allows users to have a very usefull hard edge while keeping all the beauty of the different damascus patterns on the sides.

I usually use steels like 52100, 5160, 1010, 1070, 1085 (cable), D2, O1 and N678.

I've developed a personal technique to forge steel cable showing the strands, leaving no hammering marks and I really like the rough patterns I get from cable.

For handle materials I mostly use local woods, sheep horn, deer or antelope stag and micarta that I make in my own shop. For guards, pommels and general decoration, I use my own made mokume, damascus, nickel silver, sterling silver, bronze, copper (natural or enameled) and stainless steel.

I also make my own leather sheaths, although I also can make wooden ones. Lined presentation boxes are also available.

Please take a look at the Gallery for pictures and descriptions. For knives for immediate delivery, please check out the Available Knives section.

These are a few examples of my latest work.

Pendants and EDC Items
In addition of making knives, I also make small damascus and mokume jewerly pieces, as well as EDC items such as bottle openers and lanyard beads.

Please take a look at the Pendants & EDC Gallery for pictures and descriptions. These are a few examples of my work.

Tutorials and Knifemaking
Make sure to visit my Tutorials section for step by step descriptions for some of the techniques I use and my Knifemaking section for a combination of processes I use to make knives.

This will give you an idea of the kind of work involved in knife and sheath making and you'll get to see a lot of shop pictures too.

Using a Hydraulic Press
As of mid 2005, I'm the first knifemaker in Argentina to use an hydraulic press to forge knives.

This allows me to expand the boundaries of regular hammer and anvil knifemaking to another dimension. I am now making stainless damascus, powdered damascus and all kinds of mokume combinations, among other new experiments with metals.

Here are just some sample pictures of the Knifemaking installment #21: Bowie Blade from Ball Bearings

Contact Me
The best way to reach me is by sending me an email to ariel@aescustomknives.com You can also contact me on the online knife forums.

I'll get back to you as soon as possible. If you don't get a reply in 72 hours, please resend your message to arielsalaverria@gmail.com as probably a SPAM filter caught your original email.