Aranyik: Knife Making Village

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On Monday, I took a trip with a group of expat women to one of the knife making villages, Aranyik. The village is right next to Ayuthaya.

Our first visit was to the knife making shop. This small business is part of Thailands OTOP project. OTOP stands for "One Tambon, One Project" and is a government project based on the fact that many villages specialize in a certain type of handicraft, be it knives, porcelain, agricultural goods, etc....therefore to some degree they have some efficiency of production. The government assists in helping the villagers with their distribution and sales networks.

At the knife making shop, the owners first served our group refreshments (chai yen and pork sate! yum!) and gave a us a quick presentation on the history of their shop and the area. They had two types of manufacturing set up: the "old fashioned" method, involving a guy, a charcoal fire, and big mallets, and the modern method involving power tools (but not much eye protection!).

It was very interesting and some of my fellow travellers took the opportunity to swing a mallet at the knifes as they came out of the fire.

I also took the opportunity to buy some very nice steak knives at 60/bht each. They had lots of cool daggers and sharp swords for sale, but I figured with two boys in the house I would pass on those for a few more years.

The second shop we visited specialized in beautiful handmade stainless steel products....serving trays, tableware, vases, wine buckets and such. Unfortunately, they were in the midst of fulfilling inventory requirements for the upcoming Thai Craft sale at the Ambassador on May 20, so they weren't able to sell any product to us.

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Photos

Another view of the shop
Apparently they also offer home stays and cooking lessons.