Herminio Arias

Herminio Arias García is a pocket knife craftsman who was born in Peñalba de Santiago in 1930. He is one of the artisans who has made by hand for years, a type of Spanish pocket knife known as the Maragata pocket knife. His pocket knives have the peculiarity of having the blades forged on old recycled scythe blades and put back into use as a cutting tool. His training as a cutler has been self-taught, although his models were inspired by other artisans in the area, he began to make shoe knives and also from bovine antlers and roe deer or deer antlers that he found in the mountains or that hunters gave him. Aside from pocket knives, he also made kitchen utensils out of masterfully carved wood. The scythes were also given to them by the townspeople, the kind they had worn out and abandoned there.