North-East

In North-East of France the large wine regions of Bourgogne and Champagne unite with the mining landscapes of the Ardennes, the Lorraine with the lovely Alsace and Franche-Comté.

The region's knives have always been everyday companions, utensils, tools that one used in daily work as well as in the kitchen, for “casse-croûte” and when traveling. The region with a lot of agriculture, fruit, vegetable and viticulture, crossed by rivers and canals, on which 80% of the goods were once transported through France, on which one sailed and hauled the boats, gave rise to knives with a characteristic blade shape, knives from two worlds that are suitable for river boaters in both the agricultural and maritime sectors. The whole family of Burgundy and Bourbonnais knives, SEURRE, TONNEAU, DONJON, TIRÉ-DROIT, CHAROLLAIS etc have this versatile blade geometry, which is called “sheepfoot blades”, “stylet” or “English blades”.

But not only the blade geometry, but also the materials of the handles are of great importance. At PassionFrance® we attach great importance to making knives that remain authentic and in correspondence to the culture and tradition of their origin. Bone is probably the oldest and most resilient material. Only the even more exclusive buckhorn has similarly properties. But as stag-hunting was a privilege of aristocrats the stag-horn was reserved for the most exclusive knives. Cow horn is easier to work with, and with its variety of colours and natural brilliance, it also offers an inexhaustible wealth of colours from amber to black. A regional example of this are the cattle from Charollais in western Burgundy. They provided cutlers with two of the most important raw materials for knife handles, bone and horn. In addition, there is wood from local bushes and trees with a rich source of natural raw materials of beautiful colors and grains.

Find more information with the knives below.

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