In the world of table and pocket knives, Laguiole is more than a topic. The very specific design of this knife, the stories that are told about it, the many variations it has experienced, make it unique. Here is the history of this knife whose fame has spread around the world.
The Laguiole knife was created by a cutler from Laguiole city, in Aveyron, at the beginning of the 19th century.

One knife, one name, two cities : The Laguiole knife

 

The village of Laguiole and Thiers cutlery basin

At the beginning, it was a fixed blade knife with a straight handle. It gradually evolved until the 1860s, inspired by other knives and following the needs of its users. It then becomes a forced notch knife, with a flat bee, a full handle and with little or no chiselling. It is most often equipped with a “trocart”, metal point that allowed breeders to pierce the bellies of animals subject to bloat and to punch holes in the leather straps they used every day.
Demand starting to become important from the middle of the 19th century, Laguiole cutlers asked help to Thiers cutlers in order to be able to respond in volume and to make technical and aesthetic improvements to the knife. From then, Laguiole knife was made in Laguiole and Thiers cities.

This will be the case until the end of the Second World War, which end cutlery production in Laguiole. But Laguiole knife survives thanks to the production from Thiers which continues to develop it. Shops all around France, and in Laguiole, sell it.

Laguiole knife knows it success in the 70’s, period when it is considered as an emblematic knife of the return to the authentic, to nature and to the earth, celebrated by “1968” people.

At the end of the 1980s, investors relaunched the production of Laguiole knife in Laguiole.

Today, it continues to be produced in France, in Thiers and Laguiole areas.

But, as it was born in a period when nobody talked about model registration, the Laguiole shape has not been registered. This is the reason why the market is today flooded with Laguiole articles of any quality and coming from any sources.

couverts-laguiole-avantage
We have just seen it, because the model has never been protected, no charter defines the aesthetic criteria of Laguiole knife. It can therefore be thought of and redesigned endlessly.

The Laguiole, A knife recognizable among all with a style at the crossroads

 

Through years, some details of Laguiole knife have imposed themselves in common thought :

  • A pointed and racy blade, with a broken back, like a Yatagan
  • A slender and rounded handle
    This very particular Laguiole shape asserted itself in the second part of the 19th century.
  • The bee, like a fly or a bee, at the end of the handle
    This bee is the result of the decoration of the excess metal part, present at the end of the spring and which is used to stop the blade of forced notch pocket knives when you open them. At the beginning, it was flat, without any decoration. Then, Cutlers gradually worked it; first with some lines, then by chiselling more representative drawings.
    Laguiole bee appears at the beginning of 20th century.
  • The shepherd’s cross which appears in ornamentation of the handle in the middle of the 20th century
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GOYON-CHAZEAU offers different Laguiole lines for table so that everyone can find the one that suits them.

Classic or revisited, The Laguiole by Goyon-Chazeau

To each his own style

For daily tables, Laguiole Brasserie knives are light, balanced and available in very trendy materials and colors.

For exceptional tables, our lines of forged Laguiole knives and cutlery will seduce your guests:

Laguiole Avantage takes the traditional Laguiole shape in a pure and modern finish ;
Laguiole Klasse G reinterprets the Laguiole shape in a very contemporary and slender spirit;
Laguiole Prestige presents all the classic Laguiole codes and comes in a complete series, for table and service.
Finally, the full stainless steel lines, Avantage & Prestige, embody GOYON-CHAZEAU’s unique expertise in stainless steel welding : they are made with a forged head welded to an handmade hollow handle. Light and balanced, they are also easy to maintain.

We also manufacture Laguiole collector pocket knives, on demand.