mariners’ knife

A unique fully illustrated volume, split in two partes: seafaring culture and personal collection.

From the author’s preface: “This book wants to be a witness to the world that has disappeared and which only a few of my peers have been able to know. […] This is how the idea of recalling that ancient world was born, also through the simplest objects: from natural ropes flowing through tackles and blocks or shaping into functional and tenacious knots to the knife and the unforgettable marlin spike the good mariner always kept with him. […]

This book is half the story of a collection of mariners’ knives – perhaps unique in the world – and half the autobiography of an enthusiastic man who tried to realise objects of ancient times with his own hands: the knife and the marlin spike. […]

Then the idea was to propose some of the best knife-makers and artists in the world their interpretation of that same instrument. But also of the other tool essential for life on board: the marlin spike. Obviously – I thought – both were to be host in a proper sheath. Here is how the collection that appears in this book was born.”

Languages: English and Italian

Edition: 2017