The origin of the knives and pocket knives of this region dates back to the middle of the nineteenth century as one more derivation of the activities that at that time were developed in the ironworks.

The majority of artisans are concentrated in Taramundi. In 1960, there were 80 workshops in this council. Nowadays, the number is much lower, but, nevertheless, there are still pocket knives and knives of great perfection that are made in the workshops of Abraido, Aguillón, Bres, Cabaniñas, Esquios, Llan, Mousende, Nogueira, Rio do Louro, Veiga de Llan, Vilanova and Pardiñas. In all of them, the visitor could admire the work of the successors of those old blacksmiths.

In Santalla there were excellent craft pocket knives makers; the elders of the council recall one hundred artisans working and several mallets in operation as those of Pumares, Mazo Novo, Valia, Boneiros, Peizais or Caraduje. A few years ago there were still a score of knife makers, but they were disappearing and today there are only a few workshops.

Faithful to the artisanal manufacture transmitted over several generations, the work of the Asturian knife makers in small workshops with tools inherited from their ancestors, such as the tixeiras (scissors), the hammer, the talladeira and the coitelas (cutters), the tufo, the furador or the saw, or with tools built from old models according to the special needs of their work.

In these workshops the work table is placed next to the window to take advantage of the light, the blades are forged in the forge and, in some of these places, the water wheel is even rotated by pedal.