Italian knives

Wakey wakey...new Italian knives post is coming! :D

Today I want to talk you about one model from region Abruzzo. Ever heard about that place?

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It's a wonderful piece of our boot country with stunning mountain landscapes and a nice costal area.
Abruzzo is maybe considered one of the wilderness strongholds in Italy, whith wolves populations, rare birds of prey and a unique brown bear subspecies that just survive in less than 50 specimens.

But, let's focus on blades!

Abruzzo has a strong tradition in knife making. The iconic knife here is called Gobbo abruzzese that means "Abruzzo's hunchbacked". Why this strange name? It's easy to understand just taking a quick look at the pictures below. The handle in this model is almost straight for two thirds of the length, then suddenly benting down and forming a sort of hump.

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Some people may think that a handle of this type shouldn't be comfortable, but the Gobbo abruzzese, on the contrary is a masterpiece of ancient ergonomic design. Moreover it has the charateristic to seem small and rounded when closed and to become unexpectedly great when opened.

This is a model mostly used by farmers and shepherds in mountain areas. It usually has a slipjoint mechanism and the spring is, in most cases, thick and hard.

The knife exists in at least three different versions, according to the place of manufacturing. So we have the Gobbo abruzzese from the village of Loreto Aprutino, maybe the most known version.

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The Gobbo abruzzese from the village of Guardiagrele, with a wider handle, less slender, often decorated as well as the blade. It's rare now to find one of these, because no one in Guardiagrele goes on in producing knives.

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And then the so called Coltello marinaro or Coltello da pescatore (Sea knive or Fisherman knife), a version born for working in maritime context, that has an external spring to favourite disassembling and cleaning to prevent rust.

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This last knife is considered to be part of the family of Gobbo abruzzese knives even if it's an antique hybrid between two models: Gobbo abruzzese and...I can't tell you now! This knive has such an interesting story that it deserves alone a single post.

Anyway...from time to time some of these antique knives appear on the banquets of American markets or on American ecommerce and auction websites. That's because they often travelled in the pockets of Italian immigrants from Abruzzo region who landed in America many years ago.

I'm struggling against mosquitoes, guys. If I win this battle I'll come back next week!

Take care and enjoy life!
 
Hi Federico! Nice initiative with this thread :):thumbsup:! Almost every Region in Italy has some unique knife style/design and it’s interesting to know the history behind and the traditions around those. I know a little bit about the Bergamasco (being from Lombardy Region myself and having roamed the Alps since my childhood ;)) and sometimes ago I even posted about it in the traditional sub-forum:

http://www.bladeforums.com/threads/an-italian-regional-knife-the-bergamasco-a-little-cabinet-of-curiosities.1409856/

A question: are you owning yourself these knives you’re showing here? If so, rather impressive collection, congrats!

All the best and keep it up :)!
 
Thanks Herlock! It's my pleasure to share these informations and pictures, because I'm really in love with Italian blades. Every time I find myself telling or writing: "that's one of my favourite ones" but then I realize that i like almost every model!

I actually have a small, very small collection of about 15 knives. I realized that setting up a collection like this requires an economical effort that I couldn't face, so I decided to keep with me only the pieces I love most.
Anyway all the knives in this post, till now, passed from my hands and stopped in my house for some months or years.

I checked your post about Bergamasco, it's really an encyclopedia for this model!
 
Federico, to combat the mosquitoes, first, drink a LOT of Sambuca (that is the fun part). :D They will get drunk and slow (after having your blood for dinner) and then you can stab them with one of your traditional knives! :cool: See how easy! ;) After all the Sambuca, remember NOT to stab them when they are on you. :eek: Bona Fortuna, Luigi
 
As my grandfather would have said, "thatsa no nice". :eek: But a good idea. :cool: I still think my way is more fun, unless she makes you kiss all the bite marks to make them feel better-then? :D
 
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F Federico C. Awesome information brother! My mom's side of the family immigrated to the USA just after the Great Depression from Abruzzo so I was going to ask about knives from that region but you beat me to it! I plan to take my mother, wife, and daughter there someday to see where we came from.
 
The Vanadium Carbide in the S-125-V is not any harder than the Vanadium Carbide in S-30-V. There is just 3X as much of it. So it takes 3X as long to sharpen. How is that for seat of the pants math?
 
What an interesting, personal, wonderful thread! Thanks Federico (and katanas and Jupiter Paladin and the others who have chimed in)!
 
Big fan of modern Italian knives. Even my favorite Pattadas are non-traditional, that is, stainless steel with liner lock as in Extrema Ratio Resolza and Spyderco Pattada (both made in Italy).

I have a lot of knives made in Italy by LionSteel, Fantoni, Viper, Extrema Ratio, Fox, Maserin, etc.

Maniago, Italy has been a center of making sharp objects for well over 5 centuries.

I'm glad to see them start using something other than the omnipresent N690 with steels like M390, Elmax, etc. Also, great use of CNC machines for excellent quality.
 
RamZar RamZar : I think that both things are important: the knowledge of traditions and knives of the past and the evolution of models and production techniques. I appreciate both, ancient and modern knives!
 
Hi guys!

Today I want to tell you about a knife coming from region Piemonte (Piedmont in English). Do you know where Piemonte is?
Ok, I'll give you a map :)

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As you can see we are in the northwest part of the "old boot" at the borders with France.

And here it is the protagonist of our weekly talk.

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This knife is generically known as Piemontese (Piedmontese).
It has a linear shape, a metal scructure (often brass), horn or bone scales and a big metal bolster. This bolster with its typical form, derived from a fixed blade model, is the distinctive feature that allows you to recognize Piemontese knives on market banquets or online auctions.

This knife exists in different measures: You can find small samples, with a slipjoint mechanism, in which the blade is sometimes accompanied by a corkscrew, medium allround knives, and big (very big) duel kives, sometimes equipped with a lock back mechanism to fix the blade in open position. These last knives often have elaborate fileworks on the back of the blade and of the blocking system. Piemonte, was one of the Italian regions in which stabbings were relatively frequent as they were one of the ways of clarifying certain situations.

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In some knives (both small or big ones) the handle sometimes ends with a small metal boot, common characteristic with other Italian and French knives.

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Even if this knife is usually called Piemontese this is not the only model of this region. There other knives from Piemonte, equally interesting, used in alpine and rural areas. But we will see them in another occasion!

See you next week with another knife!
Take care and have a good time :)

PS: All the pictures in this post are taken from the net, since I actually don't have a knife Piemontese in my collection.
 
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