Dispelling some myths about Laguiole knives, based on the book by Christian Lemasson who did scholarly research on the roots and history of laguiole knives.
1)Bee was granted by napoleon, etc....Not at all, the bee design was first used on a laguiole knife in 1908-9 by Nicholas Crocombette and Calmels, it wasn't used universally till much later. The fly or Mouche was traditionally forged one piece with the spring as a locking mechanism, or as just a decorative piece, smooth and plain originally, then with small engraving and later with plant/symbolic shapes. Welded mouche(bee) started after 1930.. Previously the mouche or fly was smooth, maybe with a small cross, occitan cross, or flower symbol, or geometric designs. Now of course the bee is considered the standard shape on the laguiole knives.
2)laguiole form as we know it today was created in 1829. In 1829 Calmels had just started as a knife maker, it appears from antique knives that he did not actually create the laguiole form as we know it today until the 1860's..and before that was making a style called a laguiole droite or straight laguiole very similar to the guy vialis sauveterre that is still made today.
3)shepherds cross used for prayer...this pattern of pin decoration didnt' show up on laguiole knife handles till after ww2, so maybe they used it like that after ww2 but was not used during the origins of the knife. Previous pin decoration was a circle or geometric design
4)Source of laguiole shape was the spanish Navaja, probably not, there are many differences in construction and blade shape and, chatellerault knife makers were actually supplying Navaja style of knife to spain at some point which may explain the confustion. In addition, there is a traditional french knife, cra-cra, la balkanique, couteau a palme that has a more similar shape, with an external spring mechanism that was used in early times and even during ww1 by the poilu that is more likely in my opinion a source inspiration. It has the same curve and yataghan style blade.
5)Laguiole knives were completely made in Laguiole: laguiole knife makers in laguiole were actually subcontracting complete knives and knife parts from thiers and chatellerault in the 1890's. Even the large houses like Salettes, Pages, Calmes started subcontracting parts and complete knives with the Theirs makers putting the custom house logo on the blades.
6)Bolsters: Traditional laguiole knives and laguiole droite knives did not use bolsters. It wasn't until the knifemakers in Thiers were starting to make laguiole style knives and parts for knifemakers that they applied the use of bolsters to the lagiole style. The laguiole knives made traditionally had a full handle of a single material like ivory, wood, bone etc and were called plein manche or full handle.
7)corkscrews: Corkscrews were only included in laguiole knives starting in the mid 1880's as people were leaving the aveyron area for paris to work in cafe's etc. Up until this time wine was typically sold/served from barrels, and there was no need for corkscrews in a cafe necessarily.
8 ноя 2016
