Dentag company

There always is a tight connection between the creations of human ingenuity and craft and their territory just as there is between the people who live in it and their traditions.

Northeast Italy is the area where “Smaller is Better” perfectly describes the local approach to production, in opposition to the Fordist approach of larger production plants, mainly based on the extensive use of technology and assembly lines. A local system of small- and medium-sized, highly specialised companies, mainly focused on exports. Here is Maniago, a town renowned all over the world for its high-quality craft production of cutlery. Here is where DenTag was founded and still operates.

Maniago is mentioned for the first time in an official document dated 12th January 981: it is a certificate signed by Emperor Otto II of Saxony that confirms that the land of Maniago is owned by the Patriarch of Aquileia.

The beginning of the history of the blacksmith industry of Maniago can be dated back to 1453, when Niccolò da Maniago obtained the permission from the Magistrate of the Waters of Venice to channel the stream of the Colvera river into an irrigation canal. Several smithies were built along the canal where, besides agricultural tools, swords and polearms were produced for the army of the Republic of Venice. From the 18th century, the production focused on smaller, more refined cutting tools. This required higher quality and precision. The result was the creation of scissors, table knives, grafting knives, switchblades, pocketknives and a wide variety of surgical instruments. Blacksmiths must be credited for how they learnt to work different sorts of raw materials, from steel to wood, from horn to mother-of-pearl, bringing on the market highly finished products.

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The Museum is located in a former cutlery plant, that was specifically renovated to host it. It tells of steel processing and of the technological evolution that workshops and industries underwent through the years.

The Museum of Blacksmith’s Art and Knives of Maniago aims at strengthening the collective identity that sees in the tradition and history of Maniago knives one of the strongest symbols of its local community. In a beautiful setting, the exhibition takes us from ancient knowledge to modern techniques of iron processing to the creation of cutting tools and utensils. There is also a collection of the most iconic products of old and contemporary Maniago.

The museum

The museum is located in the building that used to be the production plant of the “Coltellerie Riunite di Caslino e Maniago”, the largest facility for the manufacture of cutting tools.

Extracting forceps

Extracting forceps displayed in the case of a workshop (mid 1900).

Work force

Old machinery, hand-operated, mainly by female workers, for finishing and puncturing.

Sharpening stones

Sharpening stones, used to thin and sharpen the metal, from the beginning of the 20th century. They were first water operated and then electrically.

Roughing out and sharpening

19th century water-operated “leapfrog” grinder, used to gross out and sharpen bigger elements.

Today we can proudly say that in the world DenTag is synonymous to production of high quality dental and surgical instrumentation.

This is confirmed by the increase in the percentage of exported products, over 70% of the total production. Thus we can safely state that, both directly and through our OEM clients, instruments produced by DenTag are in almost all world markets.

Where

WE ARE

There always is a tight connection between the creations of human ingenuity and craft and their territory just as there is between the people who live in it and their traditions.

Maniago

City of Knives

Maniago is mentioned for the first time in an official document dated 12th January 981: it is a certificate signed by Emperor Otto II of Saxony that confirms that the land of Maniago is owned by the Patriarch of Aquileia.

Museum

of blacksmith’s art and knives