Founded at the behest of the Florentine Republic on 7 September 1306, it was born with the name of Castel San Barnaba and then the name changed to Scarperia, given its position on the Apennine escarpment. As early as the 1400s and even more in the 1500s, craft activities were developed for the production of agricultural tools and knives.
The processing and sale of knives and cutting irons soon became the largest production activity in the country, which remained the only crossroads between Florence and Bologna for many years. Dates back to 1539 "the statute of cutlers" drawn up to regulate production and sale, the rules to which all artisans had to comply, from the materials to be used to the relationships of the masters with other workers. The foundation of the "cooperative society of cutting tools" dates back to 1874. In this period, the craft of cutlery is experiencing a particular moment of fortune and expansion. In the following years, greater production and commercial development continued until 1908, the year of the Giolitti Law, which inflicts a severe blow to the economy of Scarperia.
This law prohibits and drastically limits the size of the blades and folding knives which can no longer be carried freely. This restriction and the outbreak of the Second World War put a strain on the life of Scarperia, most of the shops were forced to close even if in the meantime they had concentrated their production in the reinterpretation of local and regional models more traditionally used throughout Italy and in the islands.
