11" Swing Guard Auto - Pearlex

Beltrame, Frank

The great grandfather Vittorio and his 4 sons started up this business after the Second World War, but we must remember that already the father of the grandfather Vittorio, Eugenio Beltrame was a blacksmith in Maniago and was working to make sailor knives and multi-purpose knives, commissioned by various companies and larger cooperatives which marketed the products under their own brand or under the brand name of the client, even those foreign, according to request. The death of the great grandfather Vittorio was followed by difficult years and the four sons had their own families with 2 children each to feed and so in 1956 Francesco Beltrame, best known from the 90s as Frank Beltrame, began working with the grandfather Ivano at Beltrame Vittorio & Figli. The 70s were flourishing and production was in demand mainly in Germany and then in France. These were years when the focus was on the quantity of production, so great was the demand for the Italian switchblades knives. In the 80s Frank built a hangar equipped with machinery and in '82, the factory had 8 employees. Over the years, Frank had been able to patiently redo some molds, adapting new technology to old methods for the creation of Italian switchblade knives, adding improvements and details that made a difference. Thanks to the great passion that Frank passed on to his son Ivano, these switchblades were made known all over the world.