China Knives, Scissors and Swords Museum
Museum hall tracing a scissors dynasty forged to outwit a flood of copycats.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the China Knives, Scissors and Swords Museum in Hangzhou opens with a count: at the height of its fame, more than eighty-six shops across Hangzhou hung a sign reading Zhang Xiaoquan, and only one was real. You'll hear how a seventeenth-century Hangzhou smith built his reputation by forging steel into wrought iron and grinding the edge against local stone, and how the counterfeiters who copied that name onto cheaper blades set off a decades-long fight to prove which pair was truly his family's. Look closely at the rivet and hooped handle in the case in front of you.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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