Bursa City Museum's collection of cultural heritage knives, produced by many master hammersmiths in various provinces, are now on display in an exhibition called "Keskin Miras Bursa Bıçağı," which roughly translates into "sharp heritage, Bursa's cutters."
The exhibition brings together many works related to the Bursa cutters, whose history dates back 700 years and whose origin is based on blacksmithing, is composed of a collection of swords, wedges, axes and spears in a museum.
It also offers a retrospective, showcasing all stages of the profession from the past to the present, with 1,300 important pieces from different periods since the 18th century.
The exhibition also features knives that participated in the Bursa Knife Design Contests held in previous years in different categories.
Goncagül Meriç, the museum's director and an art historian, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the history of Bursa cutter dates back to the Ottoman conquest of the city.
Meriç stated that their aim is to transfer this cultural heritage to future generations and introduce the traditional knife-making craft done in Bursa with traditional methods.
"Actually, we also emphasized the master hands here because we know that this craft is entirely a masterpiece. We highlighted the characteristics that distinguish Bursa in knife-making from other cities," Meriç said.
Meriç recalled there are cities like Sivas and Trabzon outside Bursa in Türkiye which are prominent in knife-making.
Meriç also mentioned that many swords, which were donated by the last heir of a family belonging to the Çengiç beylic, who was sent to the Balkans approximately 500 years ago during the Ottoman era, can be seen at the exhibition.
"These belong to the 18th century. There is also a very special object, a dagger, a souvenir cutter made for Enver Pasha's soldiers. Only 10,000 pieces of this dagger, which is entirely made of brass, were produced and distributed to soldiers at that time," she said.
According to Meriç, the first form of cutlery-making was blacksmithing. There is also a section in the exhibition that emphasizes this.
