Rouennais

The old version is no longer available. The new one will be available in 2025. At home in the north of France, the ROUENNAIS is a knife with sophisticated details, elegant lines and, surprisingly, is at the same time very suitable for everyday carry. In the 19th century, it was produced in Tinchebray in Normandy by the Beljambe forge, mostly in a luxurious version for wealthy citizens, doctors, merchants, lawyers and veterinarians. Its numerous, ingenious and decorative details made it very popular. So popular, in fact, that the rural population also took an interest in it and soon wanted to have it in their pockets too. For them, the apple growers who made the cider and the cattle farmers who provided the milk for the famous cheeses and crème, the village blacksmiths made simpler versions, which could also have several parts: a corkscrew or awl, a saw or ‘la flamme’ supplemented the main blade and helped in everyday life on the farms. It is said that the dairy farmers gave it its nickname: ‘Queue de vâche’ (cow's tail).

Around 1860, as with many other regional knives in France, a change took place, as the up-and-coming knife metropolis of Thiers discovered the knife and began to produce it. The opportunities for cheaper production in Thiers (see Lemasson book) meant on the one hand an advantage for the less wealthy customers of the lower classes, who could now buy their ROUENNAIS more cheaply from the travelling salesmen at the markets, but on the other hand it meant that the knifemakers in Normandy lost their customers and had to give up their workshops.

In Thiers, however, the need for cheap production and the complex details of assembling the ROUENNAIS meant that its production was gradually neglected and virtually discontinued from 1960 onwards. In the 2010s, we ourselves had a few ROUENNAIS made ‘the traditional way’ by our friends at traditional manufacturers in Thiers, but we had to learn that with industrial furniture made on worn-out tools and without the clever details, it was no longer possible to produce ROUENNAIS in its original sense. After careful consideration, we decided to produce our own parts, from which we can now produce ROUENNAIS in their original form in our workshop: with a significantly shortened ricasso, with swedge and choil and, above all, with the fine groove below the back of the blade, which merges seamlessly into the spine bevel at the tip of the blade. It was once both a nail nick and an element of veterinary surgery. However, this fine detail was replaced by a clumsy punched rebate during industrial manufacture in Thiers. When searching for a ROUENNAIS, one should therefore pay attention to how this detail is executed, as it allows conclusions to be drawn as to how and with which parts the knife was made. The sum of the details and the decorative rosettes on the handle, which we do not produce flat, but rather elaborately slightly curved with molletonised rivets, give the ROUENNAIS back the finesse that has always characterised it at its core. Constructive improvements such as a blade which does not touch the spring etc. were also a matter of course for us in the development of our parts.

The result is a pocket knife with all the elements of its original elegance, beauty and finesse, which preserves respect for tradition while looking to the future. It has become a companion for people in a changing, modern, increasingly urbanised world who have a sense for the beauty of the objects they surround themselves with and at the same time appreciate the charm and heritage of its region of origin.

Available soon.

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