Bread slicer

At a glance

• Region: Briançonnais, Hautes-Alpes
• Material: larch board, forged blade
• Use: slicing stale, hard bread
• Related objects: bread marks, bread cupboards

What it is

The chanestre is a lever cutter: a long forged blade pivots at one end on a thick larch board, and the user presses down on the handle to slice through the loaf.

In the high valleys, bread baked for months at a time became very hard, and a table knife could not cut it.

Bread in the mountains

Long-keeping rye bread was the rule in many Alpine villages. It was baked in large batches in the communal oven, dried and stored, sometimes on racks, and softened in soup or milk when eaten. Cutters of this kind are found in several mountain regions of Europe for the same reason.

Together with the family bread marks, the chanestre tells the story of a way of life organised around rare bakings.

Collecting and using one today

Check the pivot and the blade: a tight hinge and an original blade are worth more than a pristine board. A worn board, hollowed where the bread was pressed, shows authentic use.

Handle the blade with care if you use it; it was made to cut through bread as hard as wood. As a display piece, it sits well on a kitchen counter beside a bread board or crock.