LionSteel was started in 1969 in Maniago, Italy by Gino Pauletta. Pauletta had been working at FARM (Fabrica Articoli Reclame di Maniago) since 1957, getting acquainted with working tools like corkscrews and tin punches, making his first knife out of scrap metal in the ensuing years. Starting out first in his family’s outhouse, converted to a metalworking shed, Pauletta made his first knives (along with other metal tools like corkscrews) under the name “P.G.” LionSteel came later, inspired by a stone statue of a lion in Venice – certainly a more exciting name than two letters. The early knives were much more traditional than the avant-garde products they sell today, olive wood and brass handled lockbacks with flowing lines
Business picked up through the 70’s and 80’s, with the company adding their first employee in 1982 (it had just been Gino and his wife Cesarina for the previous 13 years!) and finally moving out of the outhouse-turned-workshop almost 20 years later, in 1988, to a shop previously owned by a butcher knife maker. the 80’s and 90’s saw steady growth, with the company entering a production contract for Pattada knives for the David company. Some of these orders went unpaid, which put the company into deep financial strain in the 90’s. They rebounded, and the modern era of LionSteel that we all know started in the early 2000’s with the futuristic Dart model, designed by Gino’s son Gianni.
The company invested more into newer production techniques and machining equipment, and brought in Michele Pensato, better known as “Molletta” as a design collaborator for their knives. Molletta is who penned the immediately recognizable silhouette of the SR-1, which used an integral handle – milled from a single piece of titanium – with a broad drop point blade. The company absolutely took off after the SR-1, releasing a string of critically acclaimed products – like the elegant TiSpine, T.R.E, ROK, and many others. They moved again, in 2017, to another larger manufacturing facility in Maniago, where they remain today.
