Lionsteel. American Dream

“Kur Metamorphosis Wins: Knife of the Year 2016”.

It’s a great feeling to hear that one of your creations was named “knife of the year” at the Blade Show in Atlanta. It is our sixth award since 2012.

It’s something that started in the small Italian town of Maniago, an unforgiving land at the foot of the mountains. Now it’s a winner at the world’s largest knife fair, a Coca Cola townhouse, and the world’s busiest airport. The little David of Friuli continues to take on the Goliaths of American commerce.

This is our third “Overall Knife of the Year” award, following 2014 for TiDust and 2015 for TRE Titanio. Hattrick, which received an even more prestigious achievement: the “Manufacturing Quality Award” that crowned LionSteel as the best company in 2014, knocking the Yankees from the first place that it had held since time immemorial. To continue with the soccer metaphor, it’s like winning the World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro against a home side with an amateur team. Besides, there is almost nothing amateurish about LionSteel’s industrial performance; a single element has remained the same throughout its nearly sixty-year history since Gino Pauletta began his existential relationship with knives. It is an increasingly rare and valuable specimen: passion.

Today, his son, Gianni, is accepting the award in Atlanta. This is true, because Gino is one of those stubborn craftsmen who will not leave the workshop, but will happily hand over the reins. He knows that the same desires and dreams can take the form of new technologies and new materials, they follow different and unexpected paths – and it must be the younger generation, less fed up with feelings of nostalgia and with more energy, to take up the challenge. Therefore, at the turn of the century, or rather the new millennium, Gino passed the scepter to his sons: Daniele, Gianni and Massimo.

He never left the factory, of course not. He’s still there, working his magic, wanting to make toys that often go gold and sometimes inspire new products as well. Gino is a magician who thinks with his hands and when he thinks, his bright eyes smile and it’s almost as if the object appears in the blink of an eye just moments before he brings it to life. Everything he does is well thought out in advance.

He began as a young lad on 1 January 1957 at FARM, Fabbrica Articoli Reclame Maniago. To secure some economic freedom and satisfy his insatiable passion, he did not think twice about working night after night and on Saturdays and Sundays on behalf of third parties. That’s how it was back then, even 15 hour days, because working as a paid laborer wasn’t enough, especially if you wanted to raise a family. Then, in 1969, it was time to become an entrepreneur, a craftsman, and follow his own lonely path with the enthusiasm of someone who knows what he’s up to.

A lion cried out within him, the lion that had been carved from the stone of Mount Jôuf watched the children with an evil glint in his eye that sent shivers down his spine. This wild animal remained firmly in his mind and later became his trademark, his true power, and even better for what it represented: a being, a planned form, carved into raw material. This form is what Gino sees in a piece of raw metal, the edge of the knife that he follows with his eyes, that imperceptible arc that seems to him like valleys and mountains, and then again and again to achieve a perfect transition, so that all the parts of the knife fit together , accurate to tenths of a millimeter without touching and snap into place with a “click” that brings joy to the most attuned ears. Music to the ears, Indeed!

The important thing is to tame the beast, shape the metal. In 1969, an order for a hundred or more tin openers for Farfalli came in for the christening of the new company, which soon changed to 3000, then 3500, and so on. Then came penknives for Coricama, which went to Milan, Rome and Germany. There was no time for America, Italy and Europe were enough at that moment.

So, here’s the story. It was a warm day in the winter of 1978. The earthquake in Friuli left a lot of open wounds, but we couldn’t complain: the economy was picking up and so full steam ahead, orders were coming.
Once Gino and his wife Cesarina visited relatives in Milan. They took a walk through the famous gallery under this vaulted glass roof that was supported by metal parts. Just gorgeous. Especially Gino was really able to appreciate it. Then something caught his eye, who knows why, and everything else around him faded into nothingness. Like a pirate in the desert, that American-made pocketknife was the only thing he saw. It was a joy he had never witnessed before; he had to go and buy it, regardless of the price. Sixty thousand Italian lire [ed. about 30 euros]. A great investment.

The beauty this time was in the handle, made of two materials combined with inserts. He didn’t want to waste time. Of course, he had to copy this masterpiece with special emphasis on the innovations of Maniago. It’s time for Japan to meet Italy.

Gino was able to identify the perfect two materials for the job: brass and olive wood. He was the first to come up with this elegant combination, and olive wood itself would be a great innovation. The time has come to industrialize this idea and bring together the consortium members to do it. For the most important production job, he found the right person in the city of Malnisio and work could finally start on the first prototypes and then on the start of production.

A Class A product was born- the 110ka and its accolade was given by the sheer increase in sales in 1979-80. It encapsulated all the skills and expertise that Gino acquired: his eye, his ability to internalize an innovative idea and transform it into something newer, his enthusiasm that boosted energy and brought people together, his desire to break away from his work on behalf of others, to create something of his own, something that could make him walk with his head held high, something that showed a certain exclusivity. “We were able to sell 110 for 8,500 lira [ed. about 4 euros], factory price. Not bad, for the time. Every item sold brought us a nice return and thanks to the profit we were able to grow the business.”

This is what we call an entrepreneur. Someone who knows how to imagine the value of an object that does not exist, a product that will be made, created and brought to life by their own efforts. That’s what Gina has been thinking about as a young farm boy ever since he found a nugget in Colvera Creek, the water that powered Maniaga’s mills for over a thousand years. Nugget was scrap. In this rough jewel, in that piece of trash from our industrial civilization, Gino saw his first pocket knife; he held it close to him to make sure he wouldn’t lose it and with a great deal of will he went to meet his destiny.

Reflecting on this first effort, he feels even closer to his own sons, to each of whom he passed on a part of his passion. Gianni travels the world looking for (and delivering) innovation, and today he’s in Atlanta. Daniele and Massimo work in his workshop and continue to listen to his advice (but luckily they don’t always agree with him!). But the important thing is that his passion is contagious and now flows in their veins, in their lives, so that every day he surprisingly encounters new creations that he could not even imagine. So many materials. Such different processes. 3D design wheel production speed, water jet cutting and laser cutting. And yet, if we look at the real essence, nothing much has changed. A true furnace burns within us, the waves are the sound of our heart. The high technology that Gino knew is above all a strong imagination, the journey of the mind inside the form, anticipating the difficulties and resistance of the materials that you have to know and love, fight with them fairly. You want to beat him like a lion.

When Gino looks at the products of the last decade, it seems impossible that his boys could produce titanium monolithic grips that were milled from one unit. Or the ultra-light model TiDust with a hole, made with selectively melting titanium powder: the first knife in the world made with technology from aviation!

Although Gino, as a man who has his origins in Maniago, admits that he is proud of his sons. He is proud that Gianni is in America right now and getting the first prize.
Gino has never been to America. America found him, that day in Milan.

“Maniago, Handmade Stories”