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Art runs on a knife's edge
At
Scarperia, in Mugello, making knives is an ancient tradition
which is handed down through the family. Walking through the streets
just fifty years ago, you would hear anvils beating on every corner
and from a few simple implements emerged knives famous throughout
Europe. It was merchants, centuries ago, who took the cutting irons
of Scarperia abroad when they made a stop at its castle, which was
on the road to Northern Europe.
Today there are only three knife producers in the village, while in
many shops they are sold but not produced.
The Coltelleria Berti has been working since 1895 and, over
time, the aid of machines has been added to the production of totally
hand-made pieces, particularly for mass produced products. "In the
past," says the current owner - "the knife was very useful for farmers
and was an indispensable work tool for them; today many purchasers
are genuine knife-lovers who buy them because they are beautiful."
A lot of attention is paid, in fact, to the choice of materials which
the pieces are made with and boxwood and horn are much used.
The Coltelleria Saladini is a young firm, founded only four
years ago, but one which is continuing a family tradition of more
than a hundred years, when the work was still done in the workshop.
It produces medium-high quality knives, particularly the clasp knives
of Italian tradition. It also boasts a highly valuable series of table
and pocket cigar cutters and produces, on commission, totally hand-made
knives, personally designed. In this case too the handle material
is valuable: ox, buffalo and deer horn, or olive or boxwood.
Finally there is the Coltelleria Conaz. Today, here as well,
machines have taken away some of the manual labour but there are pieces
which are still entirely hand-made. The series of historical knives
is interesting, created from old 18th and 19th century models or lifted
from Twenties or Thirties catalogues. They are all knives for work
and were used for defence or attack and are mostly sought after now
by collectors.