The knife boy of Otumoetai

'Clang, clang! The massive anvil rings. Clang, clang! 100 hammers swing.”

Well just one hammer, 13-year-old Tom Hoffart's hammer. But it's still making a racket, which is reverberating around Otumoetai. People must be thinking ‘What the hell?'


Tom Hoffart, 13, AKA 'The Knife Boy'. Photos: Daniel Hines

'Say, brothers of the dusky brow,

'What are your strong arms forging now.”

It's a machete fashioned from an old motor mower blade. Although right now it looks like a weapon seized in a prison search. Crude but effective.

Tom brings it to red hot in the forge by the back door. 'Close your ears,” he warns. Then he pounds it. 'Clang, clang, clang.” And he flails it round his head to check the balance and continues pounding.

'Normal hobby? What do you mean? This is a normal hobby isn't it?” Probably not Tom. A smithy, a teenage blacksmith, a roaring forge and that clanging anvil right here in the heart of suburbia is probably not normal. Ask the neighbours. Although they haven't complained. 'Not yet and not to our faces,” says Mum Sue Hoffart.

'Clang, clang – again, my mates, what glows?

Beneath the hammer's potent blows.”

'My mates think it's pretty cool.” If not normal. Machetes being fashioned when most kids his age might be doing homework or messing with social media or Xbox.

'We haven't got a PlayStation or a whole lot of laptops or other technology,” says Sue. 'But good Lord, we have a huge collection of old tools. He's like an 87-year-old man trapped in a 13-year-old body.”

'In a joking way they are not totally on-board,” smiles Tom. 'But secretly they love it.”

So where did this begin? Why did a willowy teenager, who looks more like a concert pianist than a blacksmith, travel down this path.

Well, Tom got a Swiss army knife for a baptism present. 'I think I was about three.”

A leather-bound Bible engraved ‘T.H.' probably would have been more traditional, more appropriate. Or some silverware. But that's not how his Dad's Canadian friend, a bit of an outdoor enthusiast, saw it. And when Tom turned nine the Canadian gave him first machete. 'That was fun.”

A curiosity was born, a fascination forged, a fascination with sharp things. 'Why my interest in knives? Well, they are probably the most useful tool you can get,” says Tom, now 13. 'And I have learned to appreciate them. And make them.”

And then his uncle, a farmer near Matamata, gave Tom a forge. As Uncles do. It's a simple but effective forge. Instead of bellows there's a hair dryer fanning the flames. It's still as hot as Hades and the blacksmith is in meltdown, perspiring freely as the sparks fly, as he works and crafts and clangs.

'We weren't overly thrilled about it,” says Sue. 'Because we live in suburbia and we have neighbours.” The very same neighbours who haven't complained. Not yet."

However, it's a hobby. And a hobby that's turning a dollar. 'It's a natural progression,” says Tom. 'If you like and appreciate knives you want to keep them sharp. So I sharpened my parents' kitchen knives like my Uncle taught me. And they thought I did a pretty good job.”

Word of mouth took hold, adults loved it, thought he was kind of cute and Tom became ‘The Knife Boy of Otumoetai'. Orders rolled in. Even local restaurants and cafes brought their knives to Tom.

'Five dollars a knife, eight to 10 a week,” says Tom. He picks up and delivered on his bike and people are charmed to bits.

'We arrived home one day and there was an axe at the front door,” says Sue. And bags of knives, all to be lovingly honed by The Knife Boy.

'I am a mother with a very high tolerance for the scary things my children might want to do. They may live in town but they are very free range. And in the process that means learning if you hold a knife the wrong way you will get cut.”

'Many, many times,” says Tom. 'The worst a month ago when I cut into my knuckle and hit the bone. It was pretty sore.” No stitches though, just some DIY first aid. Stem the bleeding. His brother Jake can boast of worse. 'He cut his thumb tendons skinning an opossum.”

'Tom goes to the farm and fills his boots with practical stuff,” says Sue. His adored uncle and much loved ‘Grampy' have played a big role in the re-shaping of this townie. He even took a day off school to go to Fieldays with Grampy."

One day not so long ago Tom's Aunty was looking to buy a house half a kilometre up the road. 'I must have been using my angle grinder because the real estate agent had to explain about the rowdy neighbours. He referred to me as ‘some noisy kid down the street'.” Aunty played dumb. It's a favourite family story.

And if it wasn't knives and machetes, forges and anvils, something else would have obsessed Tom. 'He's desperately trying to convince us we need bees and chooks in the backyard,” says Sue. Tom's drawn up plans for the chook run and he's hooked up with the beekeepers' association. It will happen.

Where's all this leading? 'Dunno,” says Tom. 'Probably not a blacksmith full stop – although I would certainly like to take it along with me.” He'll ponder his future while he looks to buy a welding unit to broaden his skills. He's already made a couple of metal sculptures – one of which, a scorpion, sits menacingly in the lounge at home.

The sculptor's hardened, blackened hands and a vice-like handshake belie his years. 'He will certainly need some elbow room – he can't imagine working in an office. 'But what 13-year-old can?”

And he's an academic blacksmith. 'He's a really good student, a bright kid who does well at school.”

He is also one who has an insatiable need to know how to do stuff, a city kid with a deep rural bent. So after water polo practice and homework, the practical Tom Hoffart will apply himself to doing stuff like designing and building a glasshouse.

You may also like....

0 comments

Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.