Pattada, the center par excellence of the jack-knife

Pattada is the centre par excellence of the jack-knife, which in the local dialect is called “resolza” or “leppa”. Its steel blade is quite long and sharp, usually it is smooth but sometimes it is manufactured with fanciful inlays; the haft is in sheepskin or stag-horn: sometimes it finishes with the figure patiently carved of a mouflon or of other animals of the Sardinian fauna. Since they were child, every shepherd and agriculturist possess its “pattadese”: used in wood carving, beside using it to cut meats, cheeses and bread.

Pattada is one of the localities in which you can still find valid craftsmen that produce wrought iron objects: cancels, railings, scales, window gratings, beds, curtain poles, chandeliers, objects for the fireplace, spits and grills. These are the main handicraft products of an expanding field, now that the Sardinian handicraft has recovered its ancient splendour.