Italian Traditional Knives!!

A proper SARDINIAN -

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A Davide Steri Dorgalese - 4" san mai blade - 9.5" overall length. A very nice and comfortable handful. Called "THE SHADOW", aka, L'ombra.

Here with its cousin - a Gigi Sechi Pattada

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Need to settle in to photograph these better. You are missing the full effect.
 
waynorth said:
Beautiful knives, Ray!! 😲 ;)👍
Can you tell me a little about the difference between a Dorgalese, and a Pattada?? They are very similar to my neophyte eye!!
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Well there you go Charlie asking a question for which the answer remains elusive to me even with 2 knives in hand by two different makers. 😟 I thought for sure that I could compare the two once I had them both and see clear differences but all I can see as "different" is the forward the angle cut of the bolster and the extra bit of hook in the handle end of the Dorgalese compared to the Pattada. The blade of the Dorgalese has a bit of a swedge to the tip too.

I don't know if these are regional variants or knife maker variants, though I can say that I prefer the subtle shape difference of the STERI Dorgalese. I will happily defer to someone else to step in and elucidate us. :)

Thanks for liking them. They are very fine - both in their own way.
 
RayseM said:
Thanks for liking them. They are very fine - both in their own way.
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My pleasure indeed!!
The great God Google has spoken to me!!! She says that Dorgali is a municipality in Sardinia!! In the " Province of Nuoro, in the Italian region Sardinia"!!
So Dorgalese means "from Dorgali"!! So perhaps a it is Pattada styled or made there??!!
 
Hi, if I can help ;)

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As you can see the two villages are very close, for an American citizen , for a Sardinian guy .. it's just the other side of his planet 😂
I'm pretty sure that in the past all the places where it was possible to forge knives ( I mean with iron and wood available ) had his own
shape of knife, all similar to the Pattada style but with variations .
The best invention of Pattada had been to divide the handle in two parts and link them with a metal bar ( fausse pièce in french , archetto in Italian, I don't know the technical name in English) . This piece of steel has two functions : first when the blade is open the steel doesn't squeeze the wood or the horn of the handle which could change the position of the blade

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Then the "archetto" constrains the wood or the horn to stay as it must be and not move with the variations of humidity.

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This is the explanation of the great number of rivets ( traditionally 6 ) you have on a handle .

When you know how the different regions of the island where isolated ( you have 4 main Languages + the Catalan which is spoken is some villages ) you can understand
that each one created his own style of knife for the same use. The common use gave the general shape.


Here are a Dorgalesa and a Pattadesa from Davide Steri . Same maker helps to find the differences . Both have a wild sheep ( mouflon) horn handle and a san maï blade. The Pattadesa has a mokume game bolster.

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Here are a Pattadesa and a Dorgalesa from Giuseppe Galante .
To my opinion his interpretation of the Dorgalesa is great and gives all the place to the elegance of this knife .
The handle is in horse hoof .

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You could first think that all these Sardinian knives are only friction folders. But 200 years of intensive use contributed to develop some very efficient characteristics. These knives have no locking systems but are very safe, easy to repair, with an one hand opening system .

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Another GREAT specialist of the Italian tradition is SANDRO MARIANI , here with a Sfarziglia

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The Maremmano
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I turned the pictures to make the knives more visible :
The Bossu
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The Romano :
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The Zuava
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The Gobbo
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The mozzetta
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Two Maremmani a Foglia
Maremmani a Foglia.png

etc etc etc ....

Â
 
Âchillepattada Âchillepattada Your collection of knives is amazing! I have read through the Sardinian Connection thread sometime back and I must admit that trying to find an authentic Pattada is not quite so easy. I settled for one that was made in Scarperia, hopefully it is not found distasteful here.

I had no idea that all of the nails in the spine of the knife were to stabilize the horn. What a great idea and thank you for sharing that!

It is a bit on the small side, 20cm total length I believe.




Another Sardinian pattern made in Scarperia. Maybe someday I will track down the truly authentic knives, but I do find these to be rather well made and I love the pattern. This one is the Arburese

 
Âchillepattada said:
Another GREAT specialist of the Italian tradition is SANDRO MARIANI , here with a Sfarziglia

​

View attachment 1589605

The Maremmano
View attachment 1589606

I turned the pictures to make the knives more visible :
The Bossu
View attachment 1589608

The Romano :
View attachment 1589609

The Zuava
View attachment 1589611

The Gobbo
View attachment 1589612

The mozzetta
View attachment 1589613

Two Maremmani a Foglia
View attachment 1589615

etc etc etc ....

Â
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What a lovely bunch of folders!!
 
waynorth said:
I wonder if there is a museum of Art that features these guys??!! They ARE real artists!!
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I'm almost sure that the knife tradition of the island is visible in some museums but Versaci and Galasso are very humble craftsmen. Versaci is even not a pro .
But they are great guys who deserve to be better well known outside of their island.

Â
 
Âchillepattada said:
I'm almost sure that the knife tradition of the island is visible in some museums but Versaci and Galasso are very humble craftsmen. Versaci is even not a pro .
But they are great guys who deserve to be better well known outside of their island.

Â
Click to expand...
Â, I'm sure your appreciation, and your bringing them to Bladeforums, cannot but help spread the word about these talented makers!!👍
 
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