The shipping container doesn’t quite belong in the little village of Bramboden (LU), on a remote Entlebuch hill. From inside the container come rhythmic blows and a metallic whirr. Within stand the bladesmith Jo Wiesner and his «pupil» Renato Belchior. Only the glowing steel and the fire in the furnace give off light; otherwise it’s dark. Belchior deftly lifts the block, fixed to an iron bar, from the flames and switches to the power hammer. It comes crashing down and beats the billet flatter. Then back into the furnace. And so it will go all afternoon, until the steel reaches the desired length.
Over three days the two forge a Damascus knife. In this process, different steels with different alloys are forge-welded and thus joined. The metal is folded several times, producing one of the strongest knives in the world. Renato Belchior has opted for 100 layers. «I’m no knife freak, but I want a blade in which you can see the craftsmanship and the quality», says the Lucerne man. These knives, he says, are really works of art.
More Than a Course, More Than a Shape
The 26-year-old Jo Wiesner has been giving these courses here ever since his father relocated his restaurant to the Bramboden: Stefan Wiesner is a celebrated Michelin-starred chef and has named his new place «Mysterion». While the son is busy in the workshop, a wild-herb course is running inside the restaurant. The guests are just being served the main course, while the neighbour Willi, with his accordion and a hay beer, waits for his turn on stage.
Jo Wiesner calls his offering not a course but an experience. Above all, he creates a knife together with his guests. The word «course» suggests that afterwards you could forge a blade on your own. That’s not the case. «I want to tell people everything about forging. It’s about much more than just getting iron into the right shape.»
Amid the Sparks
Jo Wiesner’s fascination with knives began as early as kindergarten. «My father didn’t take the knives away from me – he rather held them out to me», he says, laughing. Back then he couldn’t yet read, but he leafed endlessly through «Messer Magazin». After training as a cooper, he had a rethink, acquired all the necessary skills and has been passing on his knowledge for four years.
Whoever comes here leaves after three days with a self-forged masterpiece. After just one day, Wiesner and Belchior already seem like a team. Once the introduction is over, Jo Wiesner has handed the sceptre to his «pupil», who, with increasingly confident moves, brings his emerging knife ever closer to shape. Now and then Wiesner steps in and clears away the swarf. The sparks fly.
Slowed Down, Relaxed, Worn Out
Renato Belchior had to make a few decisions to arrive at his knife. For the handle, you choose the wood. «There I wanted to jump ahead and Jo reined me in», he says. The course includes downtime in which such things are discussed. An experience, then – deceleration included.
And aggression training: a few hours later – up here time seems to race by – Belchior can be heard calling out: «I don’t quite dare to strike properly.» But that reticence has evaporated within minutes. He hammers away at the glowing steel as if he had never done anything else in his working life. Yet his day job is tax expert.
Men Like Knives
After the first day they sit around the fire ring and grill sausages. With them, mountain cheese, wild-herb salad and home-made bread. In the restaurant, a display shows knives Jo Wiesner has made. So far the trained cooper has had 70 customers – mostly men – who made one with him. Anyone without three days to spare can book a one-day knife course. «But then we don’t forge – we assemble a pocket knife», says Jo Wiesner. As he talks he absent-mindedly turns the sausages; he is tired.
Beside him, Renato Belchior gazes into the embers, happy and content. «What impresses me most is that the steel is alive. I had always imagined it as dead matter.» He’s looking forward to his knife. In two days it will be ready – and, as chance would have it, it’s finished on his 49th birthday.
This article appeared in MEN issue 2/23 (November 2023).
