History of Coutellerie Ceccaldi

Handmade craft

A familial know-how

The Ceccaldi cutlery

A family business

The history of the Ceccaldi company begins in Zoza, a village in Southern Corsica, where the wish to work with his hands was born in Jean-Pierre Ceccaldi’s mind. His passion for this craft comes from Mr Paul Santoni, one of the last holders of this unique know-how on the island, who was able to pass on to him the secrets of Corsican knife making. Motivated by his desire to improve his knowledge and give free rein to his creativity, he then set up his first workshop with his wife, Dany Ceccaldi, in the heart of the family home. Passion and tenacity have given him a know-how that is today acknowledged by all. The production began with the traditional Corsican knife, the “curnicciulu”, and has then been expanded year after year to offer a complete assortment of knives. This is how we are able to offer traditional knives such as the “vendetta”, table knives, unique pieces, kitchen knives or pocketknives. These pieces are always designed with the same requirements: quality, authenticity, and creativity.

A serene evolution

As demand was increasing, the Ceccaldi family moved its workshop to Porticcio, on the Southern shore of the gulf of Ajaccio. This workshop was larger and better equipped than the first one in Zoza. It has been able to hire and train new co-workers to the art of knife-making. And it is there that today, still, the Ceccaldi knives are handcrafted with the same passion.

Sylvestre and Simon, the Ceccaldi sons, continue the tradition and bring their own perspective to a contemporary knife-making that respects its heritage and origins. This new, innovative and creative generation allows the company to maintain a sense of modernity that is essential to its evolution. Since the first creations in 1978, the Ceccaldi’s idea of the knife has remained the same: a daily object that is both useful and aesthetically pleasing, an object that enhances day-to-day life. The refined lines and the nobility of the materials give character and authenticity to these knives.

A unique know-how

The company workshop

Knife-makers and blacksmiths, Ceccaldi craftsmen are involved in every field of knife-making. From the design to the final crafting of a knife, many work techniques are used. The knife-maker’s know-how is therefore interdisciplinary, joining steel work, of course, but also the working of wood, horn and precious metals. This is why Ceccaldi knife-makers keep on learning new techniques and working new materials throughout their lives as craftsmen. The alchemy created by these various trainings makes each knife-maker’s know-how unique.

How a blade is born

Between tradition and creativity

Smithery is probably the most emblematic know-how of the knife-maker. In this operation, steel is heated to a very high temperature in order to make it malleable and give it its final shape and fineness, under the blacksmith’s hammer. This work method is not the only one used by Ceccaldi knife-makers; most of the time, the blades are cut according to an original drawing or template on steel slabs or bars. They are then ground in order to dig the steel: this is called grinding. Then, the craftsman accomplishes a crucial step: quenching.

This step consists in putting the blade templates in the oven with a temperature of 840°C (1544°F) for carbon steels or 1040°C (1904°F) for stainless steels, and then immediately cool them down, either in oil or in air for stainless steels. Then, they visit the oven again for an hour, with a much lower temperature, to soften the steel and make it less breakable. It is the perfect mastery of these techniques that will establish the best compromise in terms of hardness, and thus the quality of the sharpness of each knife that is made in the Ceccaldi workshops. Once these blades are quenched, they are ground once again, then polished in order to be finally sharpened.