Why Did Italian Sword Makers Die Out?

MForde · 29th September 2019, 08:47 PM

Hello all. A recent thread on here got me thinking: with the Italian blade makers being much-vaunted from something like the Middle Ages until the 1700s, why did the factories die out almost entirely by the 1800s? Of the handful that were extant in this later period (Lollini, Labruna, Gnutti) none seemed to have been able to make sword blades on a scale large enough to fully arm the variety of armies, militias and police forces found on the Italian Peninsula after the fall of Napoleon.

I've seen thousands upon thousands of Italian swords in the last three years and almost all of them had blades made outside of the 'Italian' borders.

So what happened to this fine tradition?

29th September 2019, 08:47 PM	#1
MForde Member Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: UK Posts: 36	Why Did Italian Sword Makers Die Out? Hello all. A recent thread on here got me thinking: with the Italian blade makers being much-vaunted from something like the Middle Ages until the 1700s, why did the factories die out almost entirely by the 1800s? Of the handful that were extant in this later period (Lollini, Labruna, Gnutti) none seemed to have been able to make sword blades on a scale large enough to fully arm the variety of armies, militias and police forces found on the Italian Peninsula after the fall of Napoleon. I've seen thousands upon thousands of Italian swords in the last three years and almost all of them had blades made outside of the 'Italian' borders. So what happened to this fine tradition?