Mervin is the eldest son of Douglas and Christine Thomson and was born on 4 November 1962 in Somerset East, Eastern Cape, South Africa. For the most part he grew up on a very small railway siding, called Nkwalini, in a farming community in “Zululand”, Kwa-ZuluNatal where we roamed the bush and sugar cane fields
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Knives were an integral part of his growing up part of life. During his latter high school years he spent a lot of time sketching knives and designing knife making grinders. He still has those exercise books. His Knife-making Idol then, and now, was Bob Loveless and he bought up any and all books and magazines that had any knives in them. His favourite haunt in the early 80’s was Adams Bookstore in Durban as well as the CNA near the beachfront in Durban. The MAN magazine, which he still has today, carried some articles of some South African Knife makers, which very much influenced his design thinking.
He married Marieta in 1987. They have a son, Douglas, and two daughters, Chantel and Marné. His family encourages and supports him in his knife making.
Knife collecting and knife making is a passion he has had ever since high school, but life happened for 25 years before he could start investing in his own humble workshop!
An article on the knife Maker Andre Thorburn was the spark that fired him up. He attended a fixed blade knife making course with Andre Thorburn in 2005 and a Liner Lock Folding Knife course in 2008. Experiences that shaped his knife making! Mervin holds Andre Thorburn in the highest regard and regularly visits his Mentor for critique and advise.
Today he is fortunate to be a part time maker spending all his free time designing and making knives.
Although he is currently making knives on a part time basis only, he plans to do it full time once retired from work.
