Kemp Custom Knives is a father/son team comprising of Gary Kemp, an experienced toolmaker, chief equipment designer/builder, all round best supporter and Calvin Kemp, the man behind the grinder, a PhD student who has a passion for making knives. We are currently based in Durban, South Africa but the knifemaking journey has spanned Cape Town and Durban for the majority of the time.
This is our story thus far.
Ever since I was a teenager, I had the desire to both collect knives, a passion that was undeniably ignited by my grandmother who bought me many an inexpensive knife as a kid. As I grew older my dad gifted me a Swiss Army knife which I tragically lost on Table Mountain when hiking. At some stage my dad realized my passion and took me to my first Durban Easter Knifeshow, what a mind-blowing experience. That first year saw me purchasing an Impi made by Rob Bauchop, the second year I purchased a knife from Mike Taggett and ordered a 2nd knife from him. I was hooked, I ended up dabbling in purchasing production folders be they CRKT, Kershaw or Benchmade. The one thing that I didn’t expect to start developing was an interesting in making knives, I recall purchasing N690 from Bohler and profiling out one of my own designs with the help of my dad, I actually suspect he did most of the hand filing, he really has been there from the very start of this journey. For reasons I can’t recall the knifemaking paused there for quite some time, I moved out of home to attend University and the knifemaking fell to the wayside. At some point I can across some inspiring post of the early work of Don Nguyen and Aaron Gough. Those posts acted as the catalyst that I needed, one December holiday I went how to my parents and convinced my dad that we should try knifemaking again. We built a filing jig based on Aaron’s video and we got to work on a really tall santuko inspired by one of Don’s early designs. The build was an absolute work out in the humid heat of Durban, but my dad and I succeeded, and the knife went off to Bohler for HT and we finished it up soon after. It was no masterpiece, but it was functional, and I was proud to use it in the kitchen.
The whole idea of knifemaking just held so much appeal for me at this point, I could spend quality time with my dad, and he could impart some of his toolmaking knowledge on me, something I still rely on often when designing tooling or jigs to use in my knifemaking. At this stage of my academic career, I realized that I would be taking on a PhD and that I would need a creative outlet that had more tangible outcomes than a graph that you worked a month on to generate. Knifemaking was the perfect fit, the point of entry for me was greatly reduced by the fact that my dad had a bunch of hand files he gifted to me, a friend, Graeme, lent me a collapsible work bench and any time I could free up I would spend working on knives. I focused on EDC fixed blades initially and have actually kept with that, refining both my design to what it is today.
At some point I discovered that there was a local knifemakers club in Cape Town and attended my first monthly meeting there. The Cape Knife Club was an amazing window in what I can do with knifemaking, they hosted informative talks, you could bring along your knives for constructive critique and they would host workshops run by experienced South African knifemakers, the likes of Mastersmiths Heather and Kevin Harvey, the larger than Neels vd Berg and the straight razor extraordinaire and incredible teacher Jack Connan. The club offered the perfect platform for me to grow as a knifemaker.
Soon after joining the Cape Knife Club I realized that upgrading from hand files to a 1×30 grinder was the next step, I was researching my options and trying to save up money. Out of nowhere my now housemate Graeme called me whilst he was in JHB visiting his parents to ask me what the prices of 1×30 grinders where, he had stumbled across one at a closing down sale. It was half the price of any that I had seen. Graeme had already chatted to a bunch of my close friends and quickly convinced them to chip in towards the grinder as a gift for my upcoming birthday, he was simply phoning to confirm it was what I wanted. That gift represented a major jump in my knifemaking. I excitedly sourced belts, modified the work rest, my dad built a taller and thicker platten for it and built me an epic grinding jig. My rate of out rose dramatically and just in time for the Cape Knife Clubs first show, with two weeks to prepare I committed myself to it. Those two weeks were such a fantastic period of rapid skills development and involved some almost all-night knifemaking sessions, even Graeme jumped in at some point to do handle shaping. I sold my first knife at that show, I was so stoked. A year later I took part in my second knife show, selling a few knives there.
As things progressed my dad was almost constantly building me knew tools and jigs, be it a file guide or a centre line scribe or surface grinding a bunch of knives me. He really does anything and everything to help me improve my workflow or the knives themselves. At some point I started switching back to kitchen knives, and this brought up the desire to upgrade my grinder, one that ran larger belts and had speed control via a VFD. South Africa had only a few grinder options at the time, and they all had a massive footprint, something that was not going to work in the tiny space at the end of the passage that I was using for knifemaking. What this resulted in was an epic design and build collaboration between my dad and I via Whatsapp messages of hand drawn concept/solutions and phone calls. We ended up being heavily inspired by the Northridge Grinder that was sold in the USA but was 5 times my already optimistic budget. After finding my feet with Fusion 360, a laser cutting parts list was made, and a bunch of drawings for my dad to work off. He sent countless late evenings and weekends after work building the various components and eventually the awesomeness of a small footprint 2×72 grinder (It can run both 2×72 and the local stand 50mm x 2m belts) was born and shipped down to me in CT. After some initial adjustments I had an awesome machine to work with. The upgrade was phenomenal, the much larger flat platten and the speed control were a game changer.
With my focus now squarely placed on knives that see regular use, EDC and Kitchen knives were my focus. A paring knife had evolved after 1 or 2 design iterations (my sister own’s the first one) and it was time to prepare for my 3rd Cape Knife Club show. This time my dad decided to take a week off work and join me in CT for the week leading up to the show. What a fantastic experience it was working together to finish up a bunch of knives and to just hang out with each other. That show was an absolute blast and something I will fondly remember for my entire life.
As you can tell from this story, my dad features pretty heavily in my knifemaking despite him not even grinding a blade. We work as a team, and I run by new designs and ideas by him often. We upgrade tools etc regularly to improve the end product. There was no doubt for me when I first decided to start marking my knives that it wasn’t going to be just my name but rather it had to incorporate my dad, this is why I settled on Kemp Custom Knives and create a symbol in our logo to incorporate the letters KCK.
Whilst at times my knifemaking has dwindled to a trickle due to the time pressure of my PhD and the unrelenting depression and anxiety that came with it, knifemaking still remains a core aspect of what I want to do with my life. It is unlikely at this stage that I’d become a full-time maker as I still have an incredibly strong passion for scientific research. However, as wind my way through the stresses of writing up my PhD and overcoming my depression I have come to realize that making knives brings me great joy for a multitude of reasons and it has a massive impact in helping with my depression. I don’t see myself ever not making knives and I am very excited for what the future holds in this regard.
As you will see on this website, I now make knives under two logos, the Kemp Custom Knives logo, and the C·D·KEMP logo. Kemp Custom Knives is focused on the staples that I make EDC and Kitchen Knives that are designed to perform well whilst also looking good. These are the knives for the everyday person, the knives that they rely on. The KCK range will expand over time to include more designs as I build and test them.
Knives carrying the C·D·KEMP logo are more experimental and potentially one-off designs. They also represent knives that are sole authorship, the reason behind this move is simply to pave a way for my personal knifemaking growth in which I hope to join the ranks of a few prestigious guilds both in South Africa and around the world.
Hopefully this lengthy babble gives you some perspective of what Kemp Custom Knives is about and highlights the incredible support I have received from family and friends along the way.
Calvin, Feb 2022
Calvin & Gary
Calvin & Gary
Kemp Custom Knives | C·D·KEMP Knives