Robert Beillonnet

ROBERT BEILLONNET, known by friends as "Le Gros", has been awarded the coveted title "Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France" twice.

Born in Châteldon in 1961 and, since he received his first pocket knife from his grandfather, he has been passionate about the craft of cutlery, Robert Beillonnet received his training from the famous Laguiole blacksmith Angel Navarro in the "Maison des Couteliers" in Thiers. After working for various cutlers, his outstanding talent finally led him to self-employment.

His passion is primarily for the historical and regional knife types of France, whose nature he understands like no other and realizes with incomparable sensitivity and the highest precision. Robert Beillonnet only produces unique items or small series of a maximum of 15 pieces per model. The knives, which we produce as individual pieces at the customer's request, are communicated intensively and are created in constant dialogue in order to implement the individual wishes of their customers.

Robert Beillonnet's personal favorite materials are damask steels for the blades and ivory, mammoth and bone for the handles. His argument is simple: "With all the exclusivity of a material, a restrained nobility distracts least from the perfect lines of my knives." At the customer's request, however, he also makes all other materials if the tradition and history of the knives allow it.

Robert Beillonnet was honored twice for his skills, 1997 and 2000, with the election of "Meilleur Ouvrier de France" (Best Craftsman in France). Unique because no knifemaker has been awarded this title twice before.

Robert Beillonnet lives secluded near Thiers and, in addition to his individual pieces, also devotes himself to the development of series knives, which he makes for well-known manufacturers.

In 2009 he designed a LAGUIOLE for PassionFrance®, which stands out due to its slim lines, with which it picks up on the elegance of Laguioles of the 19th century. He designed it both as a one-piece knife with a blade and as a two-piece knife with corkscrew of which he designed considerably longer than it was previously possible and with a conical cross-section. He also integrates this corkscrew on the side in the back, so that it has the elegant lines of a LAGUIOLES and does not, interrupt its line of beauty, as other two-piece LAGUIOLES do. He also improves the touch of the blade on the spring with a pen, so that the blades can no longer be pressed down.

At the International Knife Award of the IWA in Nuremberg in 2010, this LAGUIOLE PassionFrance® was elected as the winner of the competition among great international competition and received the award "Knife of the Year 2010".

In the following years he also designed an Grand-ALPIN with 11cm and a Petit- 9cm handle length, the LAGUIOLE with 12cm handle length, the LONDON and the SEURRE for PassionFrance®.

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