Antonini Old Bear
100 Years of Family Tradition
For a century, Antonini has been crafting cutting tools with the same passion and energy that began in 1925 when it all started. It is a story of family and tradition, but also of fresh perspectives that have recognized the signs of a changing world.
In a quiet town nestled at the foot of the Carnic Alps, where the mountains meet the forests of Northern Italy, a fire was lit in 1925. That fire was the forge of Antonini, a small family workshop in Maniago, Italy — a town known as the “City of Knives.” It was here, nearly a century ago, that the Antonini family began handcrafting blades for local farmers, shepherds, and tradesmen. Not collectors. Not tourists. Real people, who needed a tool they could count on in every season.
As time moved forward, industrialization swept across Europe, and knife-making became automated, mass-produced, impersonal. But the Antonini family refused to let go of the past. Instead, they dug deeper into their roots.
In 2016, to honor their legacy and preserve a vanishing art, they launched the Old Bear™ collection — a return to the essence of knife-making. Inspired by a 1920s folding knife found in the archives, the Old Bear™ was reborn with natural wood handles, hand-sharpened blades, and a patented safety ring that reflects a pre-digital, post-war elegance.
Every Old Bear knife is still made in Maniago, still hand-assembled by artisans whose skill has been passed down over generations. No two knives are the same, and each bears the marks of the human hands that shaped it.