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Yves ANDREANI

A Stazzona di San Martinu

Master cutler workshop

Visits : All year

Regions : Nebbiu - Capi Corsu

Categories : Craftsmen

At the foot of the San Martinu church, the old Patrimonio forge is like a beacon out at sea: in the past, the villagers liked to meet there to experience its warmth and light... Today, it shines again and still attracts visitors... but it's not the same light that they seek: the glistening of a thousand knife and dagger blades in the forge that is now the workshop of Yves Andreani, craftsman.

For Yves, the passion for beautiful knives goes back to childhood; but his choice of cutlery as a career is down to his encounter with Xavier Biancarelli, another Corsican cutler. Now recognized on the island as a knife maker in his own right, Yves favours the traditional U Curnicciolu knife, the famous shepherd’s blade made from goat, buck or ram horn and local wood (olive, juniper, arbutus, mastic...)

Knives for the kitchen or for hunting, straight out of the forge... all his pieces are unique. For everyday use or a collector’s item with a Damas blade, they carry within them the secrets of skillful work and ancestral knowledge.

When the forge master is asked for an exact definition of his profession, he muses, as if to deepen the mystery “the work is complicated and requires a knowledge of many techniques. But whether one is forging metal or creating a new knife, what is most important is that an object with authenticity and quality is created.”