Marques e Porto Cutelaria

This week’s interview takes us to central Brazil. I have long been impressed with the knife making culture in Brazil, and the country itself is home to some of the most beautiful woods in the world. When I first saw his work, I was captivated by his use of angles, managing to look both comfortable and modern. I am excited to share this window into his knife making experience.

To begin, tell us a little about yourself.

My name is Julio Cesar, I live in Serra dos Aimores, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. I am married and have a daughter.

What sparked your interest in knives?

Initially, I had no specific interest in knives. It basically came about due to an isolated incident at work. I needed a knife to solve a problem with a rope stuck in a gear while I was still working at a sugar and alcohol plant. I improvised a knife with a sugarcane machete and a fuel hose. After I used it for this problem and solved it, one of my coworkers took it, and I made another knife with the rest of the machete. I ended up selling it for $20 Brazilian Real. From then on, I started making several others in the same style by recycling sugarcane machetes. Someone asked me if I could make a barbecue knife, and I said yes. So, I improvised my first real knife, “Vento nos filhos” (wind in the children) on YouTube, that was five years ago.

What inspired you to do this and how did you learn?

After making this first barbecue knife and it turned out really weird, I went searching on YouTube to learn how to make a kitchen knife and I saw that there were some courses from other cutlers as well, and I took a course that showed how to make a knife from scratch, through the course I learned how to make fighter knives, and that was my basis for learning about heat treatment and geometry. And also, how I fell in love with the world of cutlery.

When did you start making knives?

In 2020, I made the knives at the plant, and at the end of 2020, beginning of 2021, I started making knives from truck springs, plow discs, and other materials. In mid-2021, heading into 2022, I started buying new steel and started making knives from that.

What did you use to make your first knife?

I made my first knife on the grinder with a piece of sugarcane machete. I already made the others because I worked in a carpentry shop at the same time, and I worked on a 12 by 36 scale, meaning I worked one day and was paid one day. One day I was working at the mill, the next day I was working at the carpentry shop, so I made the metal part at the mill and made the handle part at the carpentry shop.

Do you have a favorite knife you’ve made? Tell me about it?

I say my favorite knife is always the next one because I usually finish making a knife when it is ordered, and then the person specifies what they want. Some knives I make are ones I want to do for my own personal projects, and then as soon as I finish making the knife, I’m already thinking about the next knife, what I could do differently, how I could adjust certain things, what kind of design I could use, what different materials I could use, so for me, the best knife is always the next knife.

What is the most important aspect of a well-made knife?

From my point of view, I’m just starting out in cutlery, it’s only been 5 years, it will be 5 years now in 2025. I’m working on this, but to really be worth it, a knife has been 3 years old, it needs to have a geometry suitable for the work it will do, a heat treatment suitable for the work it will perform, and a construction suitable for the purpose for which it will be used, so it’s a complex answer.

What keeps you going?

What keeps me going in cutlery is knowing that I’m just starting out, and the more I learn, the more I realize that I know nothing, so it’s a whole universe to be explored. This motivates me to know that I’ve learned a lot, but there’s so much that I still don’t know. All of this fascinates me, always encourages me to keep working to perfect what I’ve learned, and learning new things all the time. I’m a very creative person, and this job gives me the opportunity to unleash all that creativity.

Biggest challenge?

My biggest challenge today in this profession is the issue of machinery. Sometimes you have the technical knowledge to do certain projects, but you don’t have the machinery. Machines, in general, are quite expensive, and so on. I’m still at a very early stage in my career, so it’s difficult. Some things are very difficult to do manually all the time. Also, the issue of working to order is quite problematic for me because people have expectations, and sometimes it’s not because you don’t want to meet the person’s expectations, but because you don’t have the technical capacity to meet everything they want.

What types of knives do you make?

The main type of knives I make today are kitchen knives many of which are western style, but I also make Japanese type knives such as gyutōs, santokus, sujihikis, etc.

How has your background affected your approach to knives?

My main training is in carpentry, so the technical knowledge of working with wood and certain types of wood, such as how to treat or polish it, or how to choose the right wood, also knowing where I can find these woods, directly influences the results of my work.

Who helped you in the beginning?

The people who helped me in the beginning were mainly the clients, right? They talked about things that I needed to improve in certain aspects, showing me other people’s work and making some comparisons and always pointing out my mistakes and my successes. So the clients were the ones who helped me the most on this journey because they already had technical knowledge that I didn’t have.

Who are your influences?

Jelle Hazenberg, Erik Gullikson, Bob Kramer, Tanaka, Munetoshi, Shosui Takeda, among others.

How do you think the inspirations you have translates into your work?

In my work, the inspirations I draw from appear mainly in my design, and in the way I try to merge these references into my pieces.

How do you approach a new concept and that concept’s implementation?

When I have something new in mind and want to implement it, I usually start with a sketch on paper and then make a prototype and see how customers react to it. What aspects do they find positive and negative, and I adjust until I find a point of balance or rupture, and this process validates or invalidates the concept I want to propose.

What other knife makers are currently impressing you? Are you inspired by anyone in the industry?

Mainly Jelle Hazenberg, and Erik Gullikson are currently the makers I follow the closest.

Any specific breakthroughs or revelations in your knifemaking journey?

Maybe the specific revelation is my saga after Hamon. I’m struggling a lot, but I’m almost there, making my first Honyakis, breaking a lot of blades. I’m still at that stage in the learning curve, still at that part where everything goes wrong, but I believe that soon I’ll have some Honyakis there.

What is the perfect knife?

For me it would be a gyutō 220mmx60mm with D-type handle.

What is your favorite steel, and what do you like about it?

My favorite steel is 1095, precisely because I love hamon.

How do you approach knife testing?

My main criteria, besides the rigorous heat treatment criteria that I currently do with a temperature-controlled oven, also includes the issue of cutting tests that I do on paper towels to see how the blade is behaving, and cutting vegetables as well to see how the geometry is behaving. I also do some pre-stress tests on the steel on the steel plates beforehand with test specimens to evaluate all of this properly.

How do you develop a design, select a steel, and adjust a heat treatment?

The first step in developing a project is knowing what the knife will be used for. By defining the function of the knife, it becomes easier to adjust all the other parameters to be very generic. For example, the client asks for a chef knife. A chef knife needs to have good retention and good ductility. But if it is a knife for general use, it needs to be balanced between laser and workhorse. Then, reaching this measurement that balances these two worlds, we get a very interesting knife. But sometimes I only have some very specific knives for very specific functions. This will also influence the time to put a specific hardness on the blade or a sharper geometry or more conversation to be able to adjust to the function that the knife will need.

How has the knife world changed since you started?

I think that since I started, what I have been able to observe until now is the issue of having a greater quantity of steels specifically made for cutlery like those developed by Mr. Larrin Thomas.

What’s next? Any exciting new projects to tell us about?

I always have a new and exciting project and as I said at the beginning my best knife is always the next knife so I have many, many crazy ideas still a lot of “rabbits” to pull out of the hat, it’s just a matter of time now for me to be able to adapt and be able to develop all these projects, but among them is definitely a gigantic 300mm mizu honyaki with very sharp hamon.

To keep up to date with Julio’s work, and to see more of his work head over to his Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/marqueseportocutelaria/