Sa Resolza, The Folding Knife 0 Comments

I have already written about the characteristic Sardinian switchblade, in the Iron Craftmanship of Sardinia article. Today, however, I would like to learn more about this “object which contains the pride of an entire island”.

Sa Resolza represents one of the oldest traditions on the island, intimately connected to Sardinia. It is the tool that has always been used by Sardinians in their daily lives to carve wood, which have turned it into an art, for hunting, for pruning trees, for cutting food. In the Neolithic, it was built with bone or flint, to which Obsidian was preferred and then replaced with the discovery of metal. In fact, in the Nuragic Bronze Statuettes, the warriors are holding the Resolza’s ancestors.

Sa Resolza should not be confused with the leppa, which is a sabre with a curved blade that recalls the Middle East and the North African Berber tribes’ sabres. Over the centuries the blades became shorter and in 1908 they were regulated to no more than 6 cm, and it was then that the craftsmen invented today's folding knife, with the blade hidden in the handle made from ram's horn or mouflon, often decorated with figures depicting the Sardinian fauna. A feature that characterizes Sa Resolza is the leaf-shaped blade making it suitable for farmers, shepherds and hunters.

The most important centres where Sa Resolza is produced are Pattada and Arbus. The Pattadesa, named after Pattada, is a folding knife with a mouflon horn handle in Damascus steel, prepared with packets of different steels that create a chromatic contrast, brought to a high temperature so that they melt together and then beaten with hammer and anvil or with suitable presses. The Arburesa, named after Arbus, typical for its pot-bellied shape with broad leaves, is considered the best for skinning animals and hunting. The Arburesa is a monolithic knife, where the handle, often made of ram's horn, is made from a monobloc cut for the blade seat and most of the time is decorated with reliefs representing the Sardinian fauna.

If you give and receive a Sardinian Resolza as a gift, you must know that it has a very important meaning, because other than demonstrating great friendship and great respect, it is a wish for a happy future. In fact, it serves to cut off the "dead branches" of the past to focus on the future. However, you need to know one thing: the knife should never be given away for free. Whoever receives it, according to tradition, must correspond with a coin of little value, to "buy" it, otherwise it is bad luck for the friendship.

"Always shining with silver, you seemed / you were as sharp as brainwave / shaving woolly skin as wind / thus if you had fire in your blade" (Montanaru, Sa Leppa Pathadina)

Written by Daniela Toti