Laguiole knife
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The Laguiole knife is a high-quality traditional French pocket-knife, originally produced in the town of Laguiole in the Aveyron region of southern France.
The word "Laguiole", pronounced /lɑːˈjɔːl/ "la-yoll", is a generic term, not legally restricted to any one company or place of manufacture. Such knives are produced by a number of unrelated companies in southern France, some 70% of production coming from Thiers, a long-established centre of the cutlery industry. Thanks to their elegant and distinctive lines, as well as fine craftsmanship and expensive materials, they have achieved the status of a design classic and are sold for high prices, sometimes running into hundreds of dollars or over a thousand dollars.
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[edit] History
The ancestors of laguiole knives were inspired by the Arabo-Hispanic knife, the Navaja. Migrations of men between Spain and France in summer and winter introduced the Navaja in Aveyron. The Arabo-Hispanic design was merged with the local one, represented by the older Capouchadou knives, and became the laguiole knife. The design dates from the early 19th century with a farmer's knife from the Laguiole village. The knife was first designed in 1829 and became the pattern for this style, its forged bee being its distinctive mark. In 1840 the first awls appeared to help shepherds pierce the skin of sheeps that had bloated from eating too much green grass. In 1880 they added a corkscrew in response of demands from waiters of northern Aveyron. The shepherds' cross is set in the middle of the handle and is used as a rosary. The knife was planted on the bread upright and thus shepherds that did not have the opportunity attend church where able to do their prayers for they could spend months in the upper grazing lands without seeing a church.
Today laguiole knives have a spring-stop that protects the blade when closing the knife yet tradition says that closing a laguiole should be done softly: silent springs makes better lives. Traditionally only the head of the household was allowed to snap his blade shut, meaning the family could clear the table.
[edit] Design
What the various designs have in common is their slim, sinuous outline, about 10 cm long when closed, with a narrow, tapered blade and a high quality of construction, sometimes using luxurious materials. Traditionally the handle is made of cattle horn however nowaday more luxuous materials are used. French woods and exotic woods for all around the world are often used while fossilised mammoth ivory from Alaska or Siberia is sometimes used too. The famous French designer Philippe Starck designed laguiole knives and used aluminium. The blade is often made of Stainless steel or High-carbon steel, with XC75 steels being 0,75% carbon made and XC100 being 1% carbon. More decorated laguioles even use Damascus steel.
Classically there is a single blade, but sometimes a corkscrew or some other implement is added. This necessitates an even slimmer cutaway handle, the shape of which is fancifully known as the "lady's leg", the bolster at the base resembling a foot. Usually the catch is fashioned to resemble a bee, the right to use this imperial symbol being said to have been granted by Napoleon, though others say the design actually represents a cattle fly, linking the knife with the stockmen who were its first users.
Intricate decoration is a characteristic feature of Laguiole knives. Typically, the spring which forms the spine of the knife is finely tooled; this and the catch also provide opportunities for personalised touches. Often a design known as the "Shepherd's Cross" is picked out in contrasting rivets on the handle.
There are about 109 production steps for a one-piece knife, about 166 for a two-piece one, and about 216 for a three-piece model.
The prestigious Laguiole iconography has been taken up as a visual theme for various other implements, so that one can now buy, for example, a "Laguiole" corkscrew, spoon or steak-knife set.
[edit] Production sites
As the Laguiole knife is a type of knife and not a brand or trade name, Laguiole knives are manufactured globally. This has caused the market to be flooded with inexpensive knives made in China and South-Korea. These knives are of much lesser quality than hand-made knives from traditional manufacturers from the Thiers region.
