AB Coltellerie

Help Desk: History of Maniago cutlery

The legend goes that an iron mine site had already been set up in the Roman Era near Colvera Valley where the homonyous river stems from. The that region two precious elements for the area development were combined: iron to be digged out for casting and water, a remarkable source of power, to operate the first rudimental mallets. Those activities were most likely carried out for agricultural purposes. The development of forging and blacksmiths' art in Maniago was marked by three phases:

• setting up of "battiferri" shops (iron workers) along the artificial canal built under the rule of Earl Nicolò (1453);
• increase in the number of artisan's studios within private houses;
• building up the very first forge workshops at the beginning of XXth century.

Battiferri (Blacksmiths)

1453 may be considered the birth eyar for the blacksmith industry in Maniago since the Earl Nicoloò decided to build up an artificial canal receiving waters from river Colvera. Along the canal many mills and blacksmith's shops were set up. Water power was used to operate mallets, thus enabling the so-called "favri da gros" (raw material blacksmiths) to forge ploughshares and sickles to till the land as well as shears, knives, and bill books to cut trees. Fire was another presious key-factor to the development of blacksmith activities sinc eit was used to melt steel; burning coals in furnaces not only helped process plastic-like raw materials but also offered the advantages of welding by pressing and of heat treatments. Through bardening processes steel became heard, whereas through reviving processes it became less fragile. Finishing operations were carried out manually by means of banners and grinding wheels to sharpen cutting edges. Blacksmiths would also make carpenter's batchets, butcher's knives, trrowels and spear-shaped weapons to be delivered to the army of La Serenissima. It should be highlighted that those very first blacksmiths could not rely on any kind of technology; their craftmanship was only based on personal experience and skills banded over by previous generations.

Artisans' studios

At the end of 1700 some particularly industrious blacksmiths began to manufacture small-sized cutting tools where aesthetic properties were also required. That's when the first studios of "favri da fin" (finishing blacksmiths) were set up. Craftmanship and precision were indispensable requirements which were then supported by manually-controlled machines. Even a small corner of a Friuli's kitchen could be transformed into a small workshop, a practice which was to become very popular in the whole region. Working in one's own house was possible because the objects to be manufactured were quite small-sized and were obtained by assembling parts made elsewhere. A wide range of jack-knives, pocket-knives, scissors, cutting tools, knife-sets as well as surgery instruments were made in the blacksmiths' studios. Fabbri de fin were also able to process and forge material other that steel such as wood, horn, mother-of-pearl and therefore they marketed value-added products enriched by finishing operations and not only by the quality of the raw material.

Forge workshops

Blacksmith artisans continue carrying out there activities in small "family-run" shops up to the early years of1800 when the issuo of product commercialization was brought to the forefront. Initalyy the selling activities relied on vendors in Valcellina. In 1887 the "Società Cooperativa della Premiata Industria Fabbrile di Maniago" (cooperative of Maniago's blacksmith industry) was set up with 200 memebers and was mostly dedicated to selling products. Because of the lack of business flair and proper organization, Maniago's products were often overwhelmed by the competition of Solingen and Toledo. In 1907 Albert Marx, a German enterpreneur and owner of some plants in Solingen and near Como, took over the Cooperative and built up the first workshop in Maniago. The role played by Marx's workshop (which later took the name Coricama) was not only that of being an innovation but it also acted as a master model for future smaller workshops and nowadays it stands out as one of the most remarkable examples of industrial archeology on the rightband side of river Tagliamento. In the workshops electric power was used as the main source of energy, thus eliminating all logistic limitations. Moreover workers could rely on the basic tool machines such as lathes, mills and refining machines so that plastic processing was left behind. Ancient methods and procedures were replaced by press machines and scraps were removed by means of very hard tools mounted on properly-equipped machines. Parts were finished through electrolyte baths into nickel and chrome which guaranteed a protective coating as welle as resistance to oxidation and corrosion. Cutting tools workshops owned their reputation to abrasive grinding wheels which used to be placed one next to the other so as to be rotated by the same transmission gears. The presence of numerous operating machines led to a better production planning which resulted in a remarkable increase in the quantity and variety of supply.