Meet the Maker - Brent Parnell

I grew up around knives. Not on a farm myself, but close enough. Uncles, grandparents, weekends and school holidays spent around people who worked the land of New Zealand. It was there I developed an early love of the outdoors, hunting small game from around ten years old. In my early twenties I went farming myself, and spent the next two decades working the land and tracking wild boar and deer through the rugged bush of the North Island's East Coast. A good knife wasn't optional. It was the difference between a good day in the field and a bad one.

That hands-on relationship with blades, forged across two decades of livestock farming and hunting, gave me something a lot of knifemakers don't have: I knew exactly what a working knife needed to do before I ever made one.

In 2010, my family and I crossed the Tasman and settled on the Gold Coast. Life changed, but the love of the outdoors and knives never went anywhere.

Then COVID hit. Like a lot of people, I found myself at home looking for a creative outlet. I'd always wanted to make knives. I finally had no excuse not to. So I started with no formal training, no mentor, just books, videos, ruined steel, and a stubborn refusal to give up until I got it right.

That was the beginning of BSP Knifeworks.

I work across the full range: high carbon, stainless, Damascus, and San Mai. I choose the right steel for the knife, not the other way around. Whether it's a workhorse kitchen knife in stainless, a field knife in high carbon that develops a beautiful patina with use, or a showstopping Damascus or San Mai blade where the layers tell their own story, each steel has its place.

I make knives for the kitchen and knives for the field, but the philosophy behind every one is the same: it has to work. It has to feel right in the hand. And it has to last long enough to hand down to the next generation.

You'll find me most months at the Tamborine Mountain Country Markets if you'd like to see the knives in person. I also take custom commissions, so if you've got something specific in mind, I'd love to hear from you.

Every knife is made by my hands. One at a time.