Village Museum Trattenbach – In the valley of the knife manufacturers (Feitelmacher)

Trattenbach, a municipality in Lower Austria's industrial district, has a long tradition of manufacturing so-called pocket ‚Feiteln‘ – simple pocket knives with only one blade. In the 16th century there were 16 knife workshops in the Trattenbach valley, all of them operating the trade as extra income in addition to agriculture. Each Feitel manufacturer worked on his own, completing about 40 or 50 steps until the knife was finished. After a sharp decline of the trade during the Second World War it was the company Löschenkohl that kept operating as the only remaining workshop at the end of the 1970s. Today it belongs to the open-air museum that was set up in the valley in 1988. Furthermore, the museum includes the ethnographic museum in Wegscheid, located in a 16th century forge and grinding shop, the König grinding shop in which a large grinding stone and a tilt hammer, powered by overshot water wheels, have been faithfully reconstructed for demonstration purposes, as well as the Erlach turnery that demonstrates all steps involved in manufacturing a Feitel handle.