ManiAGO – Handmade tales

“ManiAGO – Handmade tales” is a book written by Romeo Pignat with photographs by Ruggero Lorenzi.

The book offers an exploration of Maniago’s rich knife-making history and culture in a collection of interviews presented as stand-alone narrated tales. The book was officially presented to the town of Maniago at its knife-making museum, the Museo dell’arte Fabbrile e delle Coltellerie, on Saturday 22 April 2017 at an event that elegantly brought together various art forms, namely narration, live music and photography.

This event is being repeated on Thursday 20 July 2017 at 8.45 p.m. at the same museum in Maniago and is free of charge. For those curious to find out more about Maniago’s knife-making history, this presentation offers an original format, bringing the stories of the ten local companies featured in this book to life, in a creative and poetic way.

The companies interviewed as part of the writing process are: Archman, Ausonia, Del Tin Armi Antiche, DenTag, Fox Coltellerie, Icar, Leader-cam, LionSteel, Mac Coltellerie and Tecnocut; they craft all kinds of objects and instruments from hairdressing scissors to combat knives, using some of man’s oldest tools, as well as cutting edge modern technology.

Ten families, ten different tales, ten life lessons. This book explores how family and work are intertwined in this industry that draws its strength and inspiration from the local area and culture, guided by a passion for doing, making and creating. Here, hidden inside these workshops, the expert and patient hand of skilled craftsmen fuses with the visionary eye of an artist to produce knives known and loved around the world.

At LEXILAB, we are honoured to have been a part of the making of this book, providing the translation into English, presented in a parallel format alongside the Italian text. We are sure that this decision to make the book accessible to a wider, international market will assist these ten companies in communicating their enthusiasm and knowledge to their existing global customers, as well as attracting new interest. These family-run companies are, after all, made up of people, people with a story to tell and a passion to share, as well as an incredible skill for creating extraordinary pieces of art.

Many thanks to Romeo Pignat and Ruggero Lorenzi for asking us to be a part of this journey and we wish them every success in their venture!

If you would like to find out more about the book and the companies that were interviewed, take a look at the following links:

Primalinea (Romeo Pignat): http://www.primalinea.net/maniago-storie-fatte-a-mano-il-secondo-libro-in-collaborazione-con-ruggero-lorenzi/ (in Italian only)

Archman: https://www.archman.it/
Ausonia: http://www.ausoniatools.com/
Del Tin Armi Antiche: http://www.deltin.it/
DenTag: http://www.dentag.com/wpsite/
Fox Coltellerie: http://www.foxcutlery.com/n/it/home.html
Icar: http://www.icar.com/
Leader-cam: http://leadercam.com/
LionSteel: https://www.lionsteel.it/
Mac Coltellerie: http://www.mac-coltellerie.it/it/home.html
Tecnocut: http://www.tecnocut.net/