Sharp Heritage Bursa Knife
exhibition
17.07.2024 - 31.12.2024
Bursa City Museum
Sharp Heritage Bursa Knife Exhibition

Bursa Knife, which has a 700-year-old history of Bursa and is made with traditional methods, meets its visitors with different display techniques and digital art installations.

Bursa Knife; It is a cultural heritage that dates back 700 years and whose origins are based on blacksmithing. Cutlery began to develop in Bursa in the first years of the Ottoman Empire, and the city trained many masters with the migrations it received and wrote a deep-rooted history. Especially since the end of the 19th century, the production of special knives and hand tools, where manual dexterity and mastery come to the fore instead of swords, has gained more importance. In the industrial census conducted in 1913, it was seen that there were more than a hundred knife shops in the entire Hüdavendigar (Bursa) province. Bursa, according to official records in Ottoman history; After Istanbul, it became the city with the most knife shops and the city that produced the most knives.

With migrations from the Balkans, skilled knifemakers made significant contributions to the development of this craft. The knife-making profession, which has existed in Bursa for hundreds of years, has turned into a deep-rooted and indispensable culture.

The most unique feature of the Bursa Knife is its sharpness. Bursa Knife gains its sharpness by processing the steel using its own unique method. The stage of hardening and quenching the steel is very important. In traditional production, mastery comes to the fore in the hardness adjustment applied with chestnut shell charcoal. Another feature that makes the Bursa Knife stand out is that its handles are made of rare and precious trees such as juniper and the antlers of animals such as deer, ram and buffalo. ​One of the studies carried out to protect the tangible and intangible values ​​of Bursa and transfer them to the future; The aim is to develop the Bursa Knife, brand it, and keep it alive through the master-apprentice relationship and traditional methods.

The opening of the exhibition, which is designed with the historical knife, sword, dagger, dagger and pocket knife collection of Bursa City Museum, will be held on 10.05.2023 at 16.00. The "Sharp Heritage" Exhibition, which includes the design knives that participated in the Bursa Knife Design Competitions and won in different categories, will be on display at the Bursa City Museum for 1 year.

Bursa Museum