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The Saga of the MoletiThe Saga of the Moletior centuries, the men of the Val Rendena andthe other high valleys of the Tyrol engaged inseasonal migration as a way of life. The harshwinter environment of those valleys offered

little opportunity for work or agriculture. Those migra-tions, beginning in the fall after harvest and lastingthrough the winter months till the men could return towork in the pastures or fields, took them at first eithersouth into the other states of the Italian peninsula, ornorth into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the latterpart of the 1800’s this pattern of seasonal migrationevolved for many of them into one of actual. emigrationfor several reasons.First among these was the “miseria”caused by great economic depression. It afflicted everyvalley in the Tyrol. People were literally starving andafflicted by illness, natural disasters, crop failures andinfant mortality.

The Rendeneri of the Val Rendena, long noted for theirskill as knife and tool grinders and freed somewhat by theinvention of the argagn from the difficulty of transport-ing their heavy grinding stones for long distances, pushedfurther into the cities of the “new Italy”: Mantova,Brescia and Milano. They went door to door to places ofbusiness, restaurants and private homes, pursuing theircraft of the “mola” (the grinding stone) to sharpenknives and other tools. They slept where they could andfor survival sometimes bartered their services simply fora meal. They pushed further, going beyond the Italianpeninsula and the Empire into northern Europe andEngland, and eventually to the Americas and the world.The large urban populations in those countries offeredmany opportunities to ply their trade more profitably, butthe greater distances also required longer or even perma-nent residence all`estero as they moved from itinerantcraft to workshop based business.

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This pattern of migration that evolved into emigrationaffected all of Tyrol. But the case of the Rendeneri arro-tini was uniquely different, involving a hightly skilledtrade that could be offered independent of employers.Unlike migrants offering labor as miners or agriculturalworkers, the grinders could turn a profit. Practicing a skillhoned to expert levels by these craftsmen, a network ofrelatives and friends from a small number of villages inthe Val Rendena – in particular Carisolo, Pinzolo,Giustino, Massimeno and Spiazzo – they quickly learnedto organize themselves into trade organizations or guilds,thus regulating competition and maintaining a high levelof quality with the craft. Especially at the beginning,greatly influenced by the cooperative movement of thesame period in the Tyrol, these guilds regulated the tradefor both the individual’s and the community’s benefit.They even developed a dialect with their dialect, theTaron, so that they could communicate privately amongthemselves in any situation.

The mobility of the argngan created a real ambulatorywork laboratory moving from the village to village, cityto city and neighborhood to neighborhood. The molathen moved to a bicycle, a motorized bike, and a motor-ized moved to a bicycle, a motorized bike, and a

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motorized wheel barrel. In the cities, the push carts werereplaced with horse drawn wagons. In the 1920’s and1930’s, the Ford Model further increased their mobilityand their craft. These were replaced by vans.In the 1950’s,the moleti began to “rent” the knives, providing theircustomers with a dual set of knives. They thereby left thestreets, worked from their shops and began deliveringone set of sharpened knives to replaced another set.

At first the immigrants came mainly to New York, butsoon their offspring scattered to stake out new routes –in Connecticut, New Jersey and Ohio; Detroit, Chicago,Buffalo, North and South Carolina and Arizona;Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, St. Louis, Toronto,

Vancouver, Seattle – even West Jordan, Utah! Wherever there were cities and people with knives and tools tosharpen, there were Rendeneri arrotini ready to do the workwith a level of professionalism and honesty for whichthey became highly valued.

The Moleti had a profound influence on the resurgenceand prosperity of the Rendena Valley. The first genera-tion of the Moleti of the Rendena Valley first relievedsome of hardships by acquiring income in and throughtheir travels and enterprise that had immediate effects ontheir families left behind while they traveled. This

exchange intensified with the years as the original emi-grant moleti called for and employed their families andpaesani. With new means, the Moleti came back andforth to the valley, buying lands and building houses andcreating tourist facilities. Many sold their businesses andretired in the Rendena while some even became tour pro-moters. The descendants of these original moleti turnedthe work of the moleta into small and large family enter-prises and international companies. Others not onlysharpened knives but also sold and repaired slicingmachines, scales, vegetables slicers, meat grinders and allthe different types of tools for a food equipment.

Patrick Grassi - Author and director, of a video-documentary("Memorie di moleti"), the story of the Knife Grinders who emigratedover the past century from the Rendena Valley to England and theUnited States, then returned to invest in the valley's tourist boom yearsof the 60s and 70s. He is researching the new theme of the Road of theMoleti in the USA and would welcome American families to participatein this study. Contact: grassipa@hotmail.it

M. Povinelli & Sons, 1950s -- 1960s