For over 50 years a certainty in the world of cutlery. Always attentive and professional service, where tradition meets evolution. The owner, Eligio Ambrosioni, inherited his father's business and immediately started collaborating with the sector’s famous artisans and looking for useful information and knowledge to keep his business in step with the times.
In 1995 the first forging of Damascus steel in a shop open to the public took place and since 2000 the business is also online. You can find information and curiosities about products for cutting and buy the different items, even those that, due to space problems, are not visible inside the store. A little curiosity, in the warehouse there are more than 5000 different items, of which 4000 are sold online.
Together with the Urban District of Commerce we met Eligio Ambrosioni who told us his story.
"Mr. Eligio Ambrosioni has been working in the Bottega del Coltello in via Pitentino in Bergamo since 1972.
The beginning was not easy for him. First he tried to forcefully oppose following in his father Tarcisio’s footsteps.
Too many times as a boy he had heard himself called "moleta!" And too often he had dreamed of emancipation from all this.
He did not like studying and also hated work: "I've always been in turmoil," he says with a sly smile.
He tried everything so as not to land in the family business, where his mother also worked; he was an apprentice, a butcher and also a petrol station attendant.
Then he decided that he had to face seriously and with reflection "the critical part of the conviction" and that only by seeking the profound reasons for this work he could choose it.
His story seems to be a formation novel where the protagonist, through obstacles and conflicts, comes to a full self-awareness. In the case of Eligio, he gets there pretty quickly. He is nineteen when, thanks to two trustworthy parents, he begins to take an interest in collectible cutlery. He wants to make the leap, he wants to become an expert in the industry and it’s exactly what he does.
"You cannot think of living only with your knowledge and your tradition. The artisans who have gone on have looked further, listened and learned something else.” Eligio carefully thinks of the words to use. Each one. And he does not do this out of prudence, but because he cares that his interlocutor understands.
When I point it out to him, he says that he owes the merit of his attention to the internet! In 2000 he put his business online and started selling and buying knives all over the world. Today, his site receives about 5000 visits a day and between 25-40 emails with the most incredible requests to be answered.
"I have daily dealings with my clients and to respond to everyone I continue to practice patience and synthesis."
Eligio devotes much of his time to these relationships through which his clients grow, but he also grows. "I sincerely believe that I have improved my Italian thanks to this work" and adds "you learn to share and listen and discover that often for economic return you omit the details and pay little attention to people" instead in a commercial negotiation there is much more to gain "I, for one, have learned to reflect."
"Today I just think that when I explain myself, I can make myself understood... even in English!". He tells us of when he was armed with curiosity and enthusiasm - and a "certain level of oblivion" he adds laughing - he made his first trip to Orlando in the United States. "I could say a few things: sorry, thank you and hello - (laughs) - an extraordinary experience!"
In his story, undoubtedly, audacity and curiosity made the difference.
Listening to him tell of the "exaggerated sophistication" of certain mechanisms will leave you as if you have witnessed one of the most exciting life lessons, where technique, design and marvel blend perfectly. Such as the "engineering masterpiece of a pair of scissors" or seeing his hands flowing amazed along the blade of a knife designed for opening oysters (thanks to the collaboration with the Record-breaking chef who opened 900 in an hour).
We leave the shop in Borgo Santa Caterina with the smallest knife in existence in our pocket, kept in a nutshell.
We hold it in our hands like a precious treasure, hoping that it will help us to remember the many things learned thanks to the generosity of Eligio.
Ah, by the way, do you know who Saint Eligio is? The protector of knife sharpeners! And at home, it seems, nobody knew."
For over 50 years a certainty in the world of cutlery. Always attentive and professional service, where tradition meets evolution. The owner, Eligio Ambrosioni, inherited his father's business and immediately started collaborating with the sector’s famous artisans and looking for useful information and knowledge to keep his business in step with the times.
In 1995 the first forging of Damascus steel in a shop open to the public took place and since 2000 the business is also online. You can find information and curiosities about products for cutting and buy the different items, even those that, due to space problems, are not visible inside the store. A little curiosity, in the warehouse there are more than 5000 different items, of which 4000 are sold online.
Together with the Urban District of Commerce we met Eligio Ambrosioni who told us his story.
"Mr. Eligio Ambrosioni has been working in the Bottega del Coltello in via Pitentino in Bergamo since 1972.
The beginning was not easy for him. First he tried to forcefully oppose following in his father Tarcisio’s footsteps.
Too many times as a boy he had heard himself called "moleta!" And too often he had dreamed of emancipation from all this.
He did not like studying and also hated work: "I've always been in turmoil," he says with a sly smile.
He tried everything so as not to land in the family business, where his mother also worked; he was an apprentice, a butcher and also a petrol station attendant.
Then he decided that he had to face seriously and with reflection "the critical part of the conviction" and that only by seeking the profound reasons for this work he could choose it.
His story seems to be a formation novel where the protagonist, through obstacles and conflicts, comes to a full self-awareness. In the case of Eligio, he gets there pretty quickly. He is nineteen when, thanks to two trustworthy parents, he begins to take an interest in collectible cutlery. He wants to make the leap, he wants to become an expert in the industry and it’s exactly what he does.
"You cannot think of living only with your knowledge and your tradition. The artisans who have gone on have looked further, listened and learned something else.” Eligio carefully thinks of the words to use. Each one. And he does not do this out of prudence, but because he cares that his interlocutor understands.
When I point it out to him, he says that he owes the merit of his attention to the internet! In 2000 he put his business online and started selling and buying knives all over the world. Today, his site receives about 5000 visits a day and between 25-40 emails with the most incredible requests to be answered.
"I have daily dealings with my clients and to respond to everyone I continue to practice patience and synthesis."
Eligio devotes much of his time to these relationships through which his clients grow, but he also grows. "I sincerely believe that I have improved my Italian thanks to this work" and adds "you learn to share and listen and discover that often for economic return you omit the details and pay little attention to people" instead in a commercial negotiation there is much more to gain "I, for one, have learned to reflect."
"Today I just think that when I explain myself, I can make myself understood... even in English!". He tells us of when he was armed with curiosity and enthusiasm - and a "certain level of oblivion" he adds laughing - he made his first trip to Orlando in the United States. "I could say a few things: sorry, thank you and hello - (laughs) - an extraordinary experience!"
In his story, undoubtedly, audacity and curiosity made the difference.
Listening to him tell of the "exaggerated sophistication" of certain mechanisms will leave you as if you have witnessed one of the most exciting life lessons, where technique, design and marvel blend perfectly. Such as the "engineering masterpiece of a pair of scissors" or seeing his hands flowing amazed along the blade of a knife designed for opening oysters (thanks to the collaboration with the Record-breaking chef who opened 900 in an hour).
We leave the shop in Borgo Santa Caterina with the smallest knife in existence in our pocket, kept in a nutshell.
We hold it in our hands like a precious treasure, hoping that it will help us to remember the many things learned thanks to the generosity of Eligio.
Ah, by the way, do you know who Saint Eligio is? The protector of knife sharpeners! And at home, it seems, nobody knew."
