The cutler

At a glance

• Place: Thiers, Durolle valley
• Share of French cutlery: about 90% (Thiers)
• Output: 60 to 70 knives a year
• Laguiole: eight parts, ten nickel-silver pins

An industrial town

As early as 1788 a single Thiers knife passed through eight workers; a hundred years later, up to thirty-six, each doing one step. When Viallon entered a cutlery in 1976, no one in Thiers knew how to make a knife alone from start to finish.

Forging the blade

In his own small forge he heats steel with coke to about 1,000 °C, rough-shapes the blade with a file, quenches it in oil and straightens it with the hammer before punching his mark on it. A grinder, polisher and power hammer complete the workshop. Damascus blades, with their characteristic watered pattern, use a forging technique known since Alexander the Great and used by the Vikings.

Handles and grinders

Laguiole handles were once all ivory; horn, burr wood and antler are also used, each requiring different techniques, which is why few cutlers make a knife from start to finish. Final grinding was once reserved for the émouleurs, the aristocracy of the trade, who lay on planks behind sandstone wheels with their dogs stretched across their legs.

The Laguiole and the corkscrew

The Laguiole consists of eight parts, blade, liners, side plates, awl and corkscrew, assembled around the spring with its bee using ten nickel-silver pins. Nearby Saint-Rémy-sur-Durolle called itself the world capital of the corkscrew.