- Joined
- Jul 30, 2017
- Messages
- 16
Here we are with the first traditional Italian knife I choose for the beginning of this trip.
I will try to post regularly one update every week.
Sardinia (Sardegna in Italian language) is an Italian island.
The people of Sardinia maintain a strong identity and autonomy, even in their language and peculiar traditions.
To tell the truth in every part of Italy there is a certain sense of indipendence and sometimes competition with other neighboring areas.
This is for sure a weak point, but it's also the source of an extreme diversification of traditions, arts and products.
Anyway...let's talk about our blades!
Sardinia is a land of knives. Many people still work as breeders and the knife has always been a companion for every shepherd in his working days and sometimes to solve personal issues (obviously this last element refers to past times).
Various types of knives are manufactured in Sardinia. In today's post I want to tell you about the so-called "old-fashion shape knife" . in Italian "Coltello a Foggia Antica"
That's a knife traditionally built using a mutton horn handle in a single piece, banded at the two ends with metal stripes (often brass or nickel silver). Like most Sardinian knives there is no blade block. The open blade simply leans on the metal collar. It is a simple knife, with the blade dedicated mainly to skinning animals.
In last years the monolithic handle is sometimes replaced by a handle with horn covers and metal elements, according to a building scheme typical of other Sardinian models (we will see that in another post)
These are working knives realized with elegant and harmonious lines. they are simple, strong and sincere as the people of Sardinia.
Among the different forms (Sardinian knife makers are prolific in new and personal forms), two are the main ones:
1) Gonnesa knife (from the village of Gonnosfanadiga) with a simple leaf shaped blade
2) Arburesa knife (from the village of Arbus) with a more complex blade
Here you have some pictures
Gonnesa Knife
The same knife closed
another Gonnesa knife
A modern Arburesa knife with composite handle (horn scales and a metal part called Anima or Archetto)
I will try to post regularly one update every week.
Sardinia (Sardegna in Italian language) is an Italian island.
The people of Sardinia maintain a strong identity and autonomy, even in their language and peculiar traditions.
To tell the truth in every part of Italy there is a certain sense of indipendence and sometimes competition with other neighboring areas.
This is for sure a weak point, but it's also the source of an extreme diversification of traditions, arts and products.
Anyway...let's talk about our blades!
Sardinia is a land of knives. Many people still work as breeders and the knife has always been a companion for every shepherd in his working days and sometimes to solve personal issues (obviously this last element refers to past times).
Various types of knives are manufactured in Sardinia. In today's post I want to tell you about the so-called "old-fashion shape knife" . in Italian "Coltello a Foggia Antica"
That's a knife traditionally built using a mutton horn handle in a single piece, banded at the two ends with metal stripes (often brass or nickel silver). Like most Sardinian knives there is no blade block. The open blade simply leans on the metal collar. It is a simple knife, with the blade dedicated mainly to skinning animals.
In last years the monolithic handle is sometimes replaced by a handle with horn covers and metal elements, according to a building scheme typical of other Sardinian models (we will see that in another post)
These are working knives realized with elegant and harmonious lines. they are simple, strong and sincere as the people of Sardinia.
Among the different forms (Sardinian knife makers are prolific in new and personal forms), two are the main ones:
1) Gonnesa knife (from the village of Gonnosfanadiga) with a simple leaf shaped blade
2) Arburesa knife (from the village of Arbus) with a more complex blade
Here you have some pictures
Gonnesa Knife
The same knife closed
another Gonnesa knife
A modern Arburesa knife with composite handle (horn scales and a metal part called Anima or Archetto)
(please pardon me if my Italian isn't as good as your English) 
My wife and I can eat the canned corn we've had in storage, at least for the next couple of months. 
She had better not try opening the cans with the knife! 
Che corino. 
Although, I never put "quietly" and calabrese together. 
