[masraum]

I was looking for a knife thread to post this into, but the 'what knife is in your pocket today' thread wasn't quite right, and there are lots of kitchen knife threads and how to sharpen or 'Vash will stop kidding himself, he can't sharpen' or 'Vash thinks he just cracked the sharpening code' or whatever threads, but not a random/cool/interesting knife thread.

This article is the main reason that I started this thread.
BBC - Travel - Europe’s surprising knife capital



about the first half of the article

Walking into one of the knife boutiques in the French town of Thiers was like walking into a watch store in Switzerland. There were so many dazzling choices: rare folding knives with real mammoth-tooth handles and hand-forged Damascus steel blades that sell for thousands of euros beside handsome pocket knives and hunting knives priced anywhere between €50 to €500. I was a kid in a candy store.

Thiers is widely known among those of us afflicted with chronic knife-geekery as the European capital of fine, locally made folding knives. That’s why I had come. My thing is artisanal pocket knives with a corkscrew. The corkscrew requirement helps restrict my knife-purchasing urges that might otherwise spiral out of control, and makes the knife a more practiced accomplice in my joie de vivre. I never leave home without choosing a knife from my little collection and dropping it in my pocket. And I never miss a chance to use it, even if it means ridiculously cutting the top off a banana.

I’d been drawn to this small Auvergne town (population 11,600) by its long history of craftsmanship. Knives were being made here at least as far back as the 15th Century, and probably as early as the 13th, according to the ancient grindstones found just below town by the Durolle River, which powered the mill paddlewheels.

And knives have been made here ever since. In fact, the man showing me the knife in his shop, his fingertips cracked and blackened, had made many of them himself.

Dominique Chambriard, wearing a traditional blue workman’s tunic, proudly led me to a version of the area’s iconic knife, ‘Le Thiers’, which was designed in 1993, when the Confrerie du Couteau Le Thiers (Brotherhood of the Thiers Knife) was set up to make a knife distinctive to their town. Fifteen local master knife-makers (including Chambriard), over a period of months, designed a simple, subtle, organic design for ‘Le Thiers’, based on ideas from their 16th-Century guild forefathers.

We had two priorities: beautiful, simple design, and excellent function,” Chambriard told me in French.

Today, the proof of those priorities is evident in the many subtle variations – perhaps a proportionally longer blade or embellished handle *– upon the approved graceful design. These fine modern folding knives are assembled usually by one artisan, mostly by hand, using a hammer, metal snips and electric belt grinders and polishers.

Currently, there are more than 200 coutelleries, family-owned knife workshops, in the Brotherhood, including Coutellerie Robert-David, which has been operating under different family names since 1919. The shop offers a variety of knives in many styles, including a version of the iconic Le Thiers.

Some random images of related blades from the 'Net






I was watching some episodes of either Mind of a Chef or Chef's Table the other day and saw someone use an Opinel which I was only familiar with because of the many mentions here on the board.

This is my current daily knife. Nice and light, thin, strong, sharp.