Photo by Milton Morris
Wayne Hendrix
Age: 64.
Lives in: Allendale. Originally from Ridge Spring.
Occupation: Custom knifemaker, owner of Hendrix Handmade Knives (hendrixknives.com).
A matter of faith: Hendrix is a devout Jehovah’s Witness and, as such, refuses to make tactical knives.
Co-op affiliation: Member of Edisto Electric Cooperative.
Wayne Hendrix found himself at a career crossroads in the early 1980s. A field biologist, he’d been laid off from a position with the Academy of Natural Sciences studying mayflies and assessing the health of streams near the Savannah River Plant. He was chopping firewood to get by.
But a chance meeting with the late George Herron of Aiken, considered one of the top custom knifemakers in the world, led Hendrix down a new path.
“I just happened to have the opportunity to work for George, who was one of the best in his field,” Hendrix says. “Had George been a furniture maker or a duck call maker, I likely would have done that instead.”
With time and experience, Hendrix gained a reputation of his own. Over the past 37 years, he’s crafted nearly 20,000 knives, some costing as much as $1,000. Working 40–45 hours a week, he makes about 400 blades a year in the shop behind his Allendale home.
Using drills, presses and sanders, Hendrix cuts the blades from bars of hardened steel, profiles them into shape, notches them, then tapers and polishes the blades. He also fashions the handles to order, which can be made from everything from African blackwood and birdseye maple to abalone shell and sheep horn.
“Most of the knives I make sell for $100 to $150,” Hendrix says. “My goal is to make an affordable hunting knife.”