As a repeating visitor of Lisbon I continued my search for local knives, mainly traditional knives.
In the main tourist streets, around the old centre there are various souvenir shops selling knives with "I love Lisbon" on them, but these are mainly cheap touristy knives, made overseas.
I did get talking to some people and the main message I got was that traditional knives were made and sold mainly in the North of the country and in Lisbon there was little interest in them. Most people having such knives got them from the north.
I will post my experience, regarding easy to find shops, very easy to find really for anybody who goes to the centre or knows how to use a Metro.
Firstly, a place to look at is the Vasco Da Gama shopping centre, right across from the Oriente Metro stop (red line, from the airport).
There you can find a supermarket and a homeware shop that sell a variety of Kitchen knives, made/sold by Kasa in Portugal. These start at about 2 Euros and come in a variety of sizes and handles (wooden, plastic).
Also, there is a Victorinox shop that has various Victorinox models at the usual dealer prices. They also have other knives, the usual tactical looking things, but no Portuguese knives.
For traditional knives there is a small old gunshop right in the city centre.
Despite being in the tourist centre this was by no means a tourist shop. The owner claimed to speak only Portuguese but his assistant spoke some basic English and by combining a variety of languages we were able to communicate.
The shop is found very easily, on the Rossio stop, on the Green Metro line (two stops before the end of the line, right in the city centre) at Figueira Square, a place that every tourist visits.
To get to the shop, as you come out of the Metro go right up the short flight of stairs, rather than the longer corridor, and walk for 100m in the square, on the pavement.
The shop sells a variety of Icel and Martins kitchen knives in various sizes and finishes. They also sell some Victorinox knives (regular prices) and some Opinels (again regular prices-no tourist prices).
They have some of the Portugal Victorinox versions (e.g. a classic with the Portugal flag was 17 Euro).
What I was interest in, however, were the traditional folding knives made by Martins
http://www.cutelariamartins.com/index.asp and Icel
https://www.icel.pt/index.php?id=167&c=37 .
They had a good selection from both makers. They were mainly friction folders and slipjoints, non locking.
The prices started from about 2 Euro, for a basic friction folder, up to about 25 Euro for the sailing knife (no locking spike) shown on the right with the white plastic scales, so all knives were affordable.
I bought a variety of wooden handled knives, and a plastic covered one, that cost, in total, less that the Portugal Victorinox model that I l also bought.
I will now give a description of each.
Basic Martins friction folder, 2.5 Euro each.
Good finish on the wood and the blade with OK grinds. Thin, slicer, similar in quality to the cheaper Opinels, though not as good.
Fancier wooden Martins friction folder, for 6 Euro, with possibly Olive wood handle. Nice finish, with not so good blade centering (I got the display model as it had the nicer wood). Came in a display box.
Nice engraving and a genuinely beautiful knife.
A multitool, by Martins, ready to kick the LM Flairs behind with its better fork (model Navalha de Garfo Lisa c/TC).
Nicely finished and I just had to buy it. 3 Euro.... three... Again I got the display model as it was the last one left. I would have bought several really....
Nice finish.
Icel slipjoint knife. More "machine made" look, with metal liners and plastic covers. Nice blade centering. Not up to the Victorinox finish, but still very good, with good walk and talk. There were various to choose from but the quality was consistent. 9 Euro, which is not that cheap. Came in a box.
I also got a Victorinox, for 24 euro
and with an Opinel No8
I got a few kitchen knives, by Icel, in nice colours, for 4.5 Euros each.
The English of the owner of the shop magically improved when I was paying.... I must be a great teacher.
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