Miguel Nieto
Founded 1987 (the trade, from the early twentieth century) · Albacete, Spain · Miguel Nieto, on the workshop of Inocencio Nieto
Miguel Nieto is cutlery from Albacete, which is rather like saying watchmaking from Geneva: the city has been making knives since the sixteenth century and the trade is inherited. The house descends from an artisan workshop of the early twentieth century and today combines the old hand with numerical control.
History
The trade began in the family in the early twentieth century with Inocencio Nieto, in Albacete, the city in south-east Spain that has produced knives since the sixteenth century and that gives its name to a whole tradition. In 1980 Miguel Nieto and his children began manufacturing on their own account, mixing the inherited craft with modern machinery, and in 1987 Miguel Nieto S.L. was formally constituted. The catalogue splits between hill and hunting lines — Chamán, Coyote, Cetrería, Gran Cazador — and pocket knives of classic Spanish cut, with handles in fine wood, stag and micarta.
Iconic models
Chamán
The house bushcraft line: fixed blade, micarta handle and leather sheath.
Coyote
A fixed hunting blade with a wooden handle, one of the most recognised models in the catalogue.
Campaña line
The traditional Spanish hill knife, folding and with no ornament beyond the wood.
Cetrería
A series built for fieldwork with birds, with a short, broad blade.
Worth knowing
On Amazon it almost never signs with its full name: its listings are titled simply "Nieto", which is how the catalogue once split it into two separate brands — thirteen knives on one side and eight on the other — until the two spellings were merged.
