The Knife Museum
 In the Museum-place of memory, interconnected documents and collections are arranged so as to enable the visitor to interpret the utensil through an examination of historic facts.
The layout of the museum begins with the story of the knife in its many forms present in human actions, confirmed by pictures taken from Italian art. By using a manual approach (assembly counter) it’s possible to see the various components of different types of knife. The visitor can himself put a knife together and thus see the complexity of apparently simple utensils like the table knife. An itinerary that ranges through the production of knives and blades in various Italian centres enables a comparison of materials, techniques and objects very distant from each other, both geographically and temporally.
The culture and production of knives in Scarperia is the highpoint and fulcrum of the museum itinerary; the life and work of the knife-makers’ families in Scarperia unfolds through memories, stories and topical issues, in pictures and in reconstructions of the workplace, of the social and family order, of the controversial relationship between the crafts professions and the farming world.
The displays of knives, the construction features, the breadth of the range of production in Scarperia are reflected, finally, by objects which speak for themselves, like the work knives with the blade finished by the numerous grindings, the delicate “palm-knives”, desk pen knives and the ever-popular Scarperia “zuava”.
The knife-maker’s workshop (Via Solferino, 15) is the part of the museum where the various phases of the craftsman’s production of knives can be observed directly, heightening the emotion of the visitor. The forge, work counter and anvil were the equipment that the work of the knife-maker was centred around, helped in the less heavy work by child-workers and by the “giratora” (female labour whose sphere of competence was limited to turning the grindstone for grinding the knives).
Various expedients have been used to permit the handling, disassembly and re-assembly of the knife so as to feel its size and form in relation to the intended use. The Museum of Knives belongs to the “Museo Diffuso” museum circuit of the boroughs of Barberino di Mugello, Borgo San Lorenzo, Dicomano, Firenzuola, Londa, Marradi, Palazzuolo, Pelago, Pontassieve, Reggello, Rufina, San Godenzo, San Piero a Sieve, Scarperia, Vaglia and Vicchio.
© photograph by
Kee-Ho Casati |
