Museum of Cutting Tools

Cutlery manufacture in the small town of Scarperia north of Florence is almost forgotten. The origins of the local cutlery trade date back to the 14th century, with sales being processed via Florentine traders. Scarperia was in charge of supplying the armies of the Florence city-state with edged weapons. With the beginning of the 18th century, Scarperia mainly produced knives used for work purposes in a regional context.

Today, the quiet town with its 800 inhabitants, by the way a twin town of the French knive manufacturing centre Laguiole, is home to no more than 20 small cutlery workshops that have specialised in high quality products.

A research and documentation centre on the history of the local cutlery trade was set up in 1987. In 1995, the cutlery museum ‘Museo dei Ferri Taglienti’ was established in a defiant 14th-century palace, maintaining an original workshop, the ‘Bottega del Coletellinalo’, as a branch in the town centre where visitors have the possibility to see how a knife is made.

Museum of Cutting Tools
Museo dei Ferri Taglienti
Piazza dei Vicari
Scarperia
Italy
+39 (0) 55 - 8468165
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