Massif-Central, Auvergne, Aubrac, Aveyron

In the middle of France is the most fertile of the knife regions in France located, the Massif-Central. It is not a geographical unit or a defined political administrative region, but a traditional name for a region that includes the Limousin, the Auvergne including the "chain of volcanoes" and the Cantal, including the Cevennes and the plateaus of the Causses in the Midi-Pyrénées. Some also include Languedoc-Roussillon in the south and Bourgogne in the north-west, so the borders are fluid and the individual landscapes are different, like the traditions of the terroirs. For the culture of the French knives, however, these do not belong together; the center of interest is the town of Thiers and the village of Laguiole.

The heyday of the city of Thiers began with the arrival of the cutlery. Legends say that the Romans already forged here, others say that Auvergnatian crusaders brought this art with them from the Orient. Wherever the roots of the blacksmith's craft in Thiers lie, the first blacksmiths established in the 14th century as documented. They used the gradient of the Durolle for their grindstones and hammers, so that the blacksmith's trade brought the city to respect and prosperity. From the 15th century onwards, forged products were traded by so-called "routiers" (traveling traders) throughout France and exported to Spain and northern Italy. At the end of the 18th century, around 10 000 people and thus two thirds of the population lived in Thiers from the coutellerie. Today modern companies from all sectors of steel processing have settled.

The Aubrac also had its own knife production. The village of Laguiole became famous for its blacksmiths, who settled here from 1828 and developed a pocket knife that would become known all over the world. Numerous myths and legends surround the LAGUIOLE and how and who it was created. However, knife manufacture died out in Laguiole at the beginning of the 19th century, but revived in 1986. The great rural exodus, which depopulated large areas of France in the second half of the 19th century, hit the Auvergne hard and depopulated large stretches of land, so that many people had to leave their farms to seek their livelihood in the big cities.

The LAGUIOLE itself survived because the blacksmiths in Thiers continued to produce the knife, further developing and perfecting many of its details such as the bee. Laguiole has only had its own knife production facility for a few years. After the government launched a funding program in the 1980ies to create new jobs, numerous small and large cutlers and cutlery shops have settled there. Some of them are able to produce several hundred thousand knives per year on an industrial scale. All of the companies in Laguiole are start-ups. Complete information can be found in the new  Christian Lemasson's book "Das LAGUIOLE, Geschichte eines außergewöhnlichen Messers“, whose translation we actually finished. It will be available from September 2021 in our book-list which you will find under Accessories.

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