Flexible knife block Briccole di Venezia

Have you ever been to Venice? Then you know what briccole are - the ubiquitous solid oak pilings on which the gondoliers moor their boats and which guide the ships on the lagoon by marking the fairways. Pierced by the shipworm, these poles must be replaced at regular intervals. And so you will meet your wood here again, because sorted out does not mean thrown away. On the contrary: In his workshop in the Sauerland region, cabinetmaker Konrad Horsch reworks the used briccole in such a way that the natural grain of the oak wood emerges in a special way. He does not even leave out the distinctive feeding marks of the shipworms, so that the wood retains its very own character.

As always, Horsch attaches great importance to producing his pieces from a single board. In this way, the old Venetian oak wood takes on a new shape and, as a knife block, is transformed into a safe haven for your kitchen knives. The principle is well known: Filled with about 1,800 skewers of untreated birch wood, which can be removed individually or refilled depending on the quantity of knives, the block adapts flexibly to any knife shape and size, always looking fully loaded.

A product that leaves Konrad Horsch's workshop is anything but just a piece of wood sawn into shape or turned - it's a piece of wood with a history. For every knife edge that passes through his hands, every rolling pin that he puts the finishing touches on, he can provide the biography: Where was the tree from which the workpiece is made, when was it felled and under what circumstances, which plants, animals or fungi have left traces in the wood, why and in what form? Instead of buying from the timber merchant, he therefore prefers to buy his raw material from where it grew - then, as they say in specialist circles, "negotiations are conducted standing on the trunk". Or he recycles old wood and puts it to a new use, often inspired by its original purpose.

Working only with solid wood is a matter of course for the cabinetmaker from Iserlohn, in a manufactory and with minimal use of machinery. Every object that bears his name is made by him, regardless of whether it is a one-off piece such as large solitaire furniture, art objects for public spaces or products made in small series such as those in the Manufactum range. Even if they are not unique, they are made with the same attention to detail as one-of-a-kind pieces, something Horsch learned during his studies with the well-known cabinetmaker James Krenov in California. Last but not least, the character of the wood alone makes each piece unique. Knotholes, annual rings and grains are simply not uniform - and if they were, the wood would also lose its appeal for Horsch.