New Vintage BCM 9.25" Pasta Knife Carbon Plum Wood Handle Maniago, Italy ~1960s

New vintage BCM 9.5" noodle knife made in Maniago Italy most likely in the 1960's. Blade is a hand forged hand ground carbon steel and the handle is hafted in what looks like plum wood with a pin and disc rosette rivet. 

These are part of a batch of unused vintage Italian knives we have found and are very unusual to come by, these were not exported to the United States very much and show up used hardly ever. I can count on one hand the amount of vintage Italian knives of this era I have found in 20 years of dealing in vintage knives. 

This is a great example of the historic small industry knife making from several small towns in Northern Italy. Similar to French knives of this basic construction they were made to be affordable work knives in thier day, little vanity was paid to finish but they have a lot of charm. 

The blade was originally unsharpened, not flat when set down on a level surface and profoundly dull. One theory I read from the late Ralph Gervasio was that dullness was so they could be imported cheaper as an unfinished knife.

Typically we leave new old stock knives with thier original factory edge to preserve the history of their manufacture but these were not quite usable. We have taken the liberty or flattening the edge, thinning it and sharpening the edge so the knife can be used. There are some irregularities to the blade being hand forged which make this a bit difficult to get laser straight. 

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