Letter opener Damascus steel raw

In the production of blades made of real Damascus steel, many paper-thin layers of two different sorts of steel are forged together, creating an especially durable and at the same time moderately elastic workpiece. They are characterised by distinctive patterns of banding and mottling reminiscent of flowing water. The letter opener is forged in the smithy of the Königsmünster Abbey in Meschede in the Sauerland region.

According to an old Latin verse, the Cistercians preferred valleys, the Benedictines mountains, the Franciscans small towns, and the Jesuits large towns for their monasteries: “Bernhardus valles, montes Benedictus amabat, / oppida Franciscus, magnas Ignatius urbes”. The Benedictines of the Königsmünster Abbey have certainly kept to this, for their monastery towers high above Meschede, town in the mountainous Sauerland region. From a bird’s eye view, you’ll easily spot that the monastery’s buildings build up a small town on their own: in the foreground the grammar school and some of the monastery buildings, flanked by the House of Silence and the “Oasis”, further back the workshops with a smithy and carpentry plus the agricultural buildings – all this embedded in a park-like garden.