The Montpellier knife gets its name from the city seating in South of France, next to the Mediterranean Sea.
It was primarily a sailor knife, created around the seventeenth or eighteenth century.
The knife itself is really simple, a 2 pins friction folder, like a Capucin, no spring or locking system here, it can’t be simpler.
The blade shape is difficult to define, between a clip point and a wharncliff. The straight cutting edge is typical of the sailor knife, like a sheepfoot, mainly dedicated to cut ropes.
The handle is faceted, slightly trapezoidal and with sometimes a hole at the end to affix a lanyard
Very popular with the sailors, it was produced in big quantities by many manufacturers, including Soanen Mondanet, that became Cognet. It lost popularity at the beginning of the Twentieth century, replaced by slipjoint knives, more modern, and the type was forgotten.
But recently some old books and blades were found in the attic of Cognet’s workshop and the knife re-made.
The new version is faithful to the original with an XC75 carbon steel blade.
Montpellier in damascus steel
An interesting piece, remnant from the past and full of character.
As seen in a previous post, Thiers has been the French knife making capital for centuries.
Cutlers from the city and its surrounding were so famous and efficient that they ended up manufacturing the so called “regional knives”, the knives from different regions and cities of France like the Aurillac, the Laguiole, the Rouennais, the Yssingeaux etc.
All those knives have specific design and style originally elaborated in those regions.
However, Thiers, filled with cutleries and making all those different knives, never had its own knife style. This was solved in 1994, when several cutleries from Thiers created a guild to define a design for a knife belonging to Thiers.
The design is registered with a distinctive double wave and opposite oblique ends on each side of the handle giving a timeless and true to French tradition design.
More than a detailed design, it is a set of rules and guidelines, giving some room for each cutler’s interpretation.
Banned designs
But to be validated and receive the distinctive T logo, symbol of authenticity, each cutler has to follow the guild rules.:
Having at least 5 years of experience as a cutler
The cutler must be accepted as part of the guild and registered
The design proposed has to be accepted by the guild
The knife has to be marked with the T logo and “Le Thiers par…” including the name of the manufacturer.
The cutler will never have any part of the manufacturing done outside of Thiers and its surrounding.
The parts and raw materials used must be of quality and approved by the guild.
This origin control is important to protect the knife from Asian copies, something that, for instance, the Laguiole knife was lacking, reason why you can find countless cheap copies of this great knife.
What started as a project from a handful of passionate knife-makers turned into a real success with almost 60 manufacturers and independents making their version of the knife.
Le Thiers by Coursolle with brass sides
Le Thiers by Claude Dozorme
Le thiers by Arbalete
Le Thiers by Robert David
Le Thiers by Jean Dubost
Le Thiers by Fernando Ramos
Le Thiers by Cognet
If you are looking for French elegance and controlled quality and origin, look for the T logo!
Soanen Mondanel was a big name in knife making in Thiers, the French capital, if not European, of knife making. It was famous in the 18th and 19th century for its brass handled motif knives representing artists or political figures
One of those knives was embossed with Napoleon, standing with, as usual, his hand in his waistcoat, with his seal and the French Imperial eagle, probably to celebrate his coronation as emperor in 1804.
After Napoleon was deposed and exiled to Saint Helena in 1815, the Bourbons were reinstated as royal family and Louis XVIII declared king. One of his acts to gain back control and erase Napoleon’s influence was to ban all the Napoleonic symbols.
Soanen Mondanel had to stop manufacturing their Napoleon knives but didn’t want to destroy the molds, maybe hoping that the emperor would be back. After all, he already came back from his first exile in Elba. The molds were buried next to the shop.
But Saint-Helena was probably remote enough and Napoleon never came back, the molds were forgotten.
In 1902, Antoine Cognet purchased the manufacture and gave it his name.
Today it is Pierre Cognet, his grand-son, who is running the factory. In 2005 the factory underwent renovations and the molds were discovered. After restoration, the molds were ready for a knife re-edition.
It is where enters a second knife maker, Couperier-Coursolle, who is still today the specialist of the brass handles and figurative knives.
Figurative brass handled navette by Coursolle
The knife is an alliance of those two manufacturers, Couperier-Coursolle making the handle and Cognet the XC75 carbon steel blade.
To symbolize this collaboration, the blade is marked with the two emblems, Cognet’s hare and Coursolle’s adjustable wrench.
Last reference to the past, the production was limited to 1815 pieces, in reference to the year when Napoleon was, for the second time and definitely, deposed, and all his symbols banned.
When you have to abdicate and you know that your knife re-edition will be limited to 1815 pieces
The story of the Douk-Douk started more than 90 years ago, in 1929, when Gaspard Cognet, that everybody called “Gaston”, decided to target the Melanesian market with a new folding knife.
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Thiers was exporting its knives all over the world, especially in the vast French colonial empire. The MC Cognet was one of the biggest manufactures, and targeting the French islands in the Pacific Ocean seemed a good plan.
The knife was designed to be inexpensive and sturdy.
It is made of 6 parts, a carbon steel blade, a ferro-blackened folded sheet-metal handle, a strong spring nested inside the handle, a bail at the back and 2 rivets to assemble it all… That’s it.
Gaston was looking for a commercial catch for his knife. This was long before Google and Wikipedia and it is in an illustrated dictionary that he found the picture of a local divinity, the Douk-Douk.
The Duk-Duk (or Douk-Douk), sometimes called the god of chaos and doom, is an important figure in the Melanesian culture. The costume is made of a conical hat, a cylindrical mask made of bark, and palm tree leaves down to the knees. He goes screaming in the village, scaring people off, until he reaches the hut of the person suspected of a crime to deliver the punishment. Nobody dares going against him, as death would struck anyone who would raise his hand against the Duk-Duk.
The legend also gives him the power of healing. In this little character, looking like a mix between a pineapple and a fir, Gaston found his symbol. It was patented in 1930.
To complete his design, he opted for a Turkish clip / Scimitar style blade decorated with an electrochemical etching figuring arabesques, to give it a more exotic look.
The Melanesian market was a disaster and the stocks were redirected to other markets in the colonial empire. It finally met success in the French colonies of North Africa where people liked its low price and high quality blade, easy to sharpen, that was even sometimes used as a razor. From there it migrated to sub-Saharan Africa and even arrived in pygmy tribes.
It was carried by the French Foreign Legion and other Colonial troops and reached, with troops reassignment, the middle-east through Lebanon, and South-East Asia through Indochina. In 1939 it became “the national pocket knife” of Algeria.
Vintage Douk-Douk from before 1939
Different variants were created, with different blade shapes: clip point, drop-point or sheep-foot. Some models disappeared like “Le Lion”, “Le Saharien” or “Ed Dib”, all for the North African market. Some are still around like the “Tiki”, another attempt for the Polynesian market, or the “Baraka”, with its nickel-plated handle.
It was so famous (and easy to make) that it also had countless copies.
A copy called Kama
The Douk-Douk gained its infamous killer reputation during the Algerian independence war. Largely available, with a sharp blade and flat enough to be easily concealed it was the perfect weapon. Once open, you can just hammer the two ears at the base of the blade to change it into a fierce fixed blade, ready to stab any private or officer who would dare to enter the Casbah.
It was so dangerous that the DST (French counter-intelligence) considered it as military equipment, banned its exportation to Algeria and seized the existing stocks. Those seized knives were then given to the troops as a utility knife.
In 1962, at the Algerian independence, the repatriated troops and civilians bring back the Douk-Douk to France, where it was unknown, and built up its reputation.
Today the knife is still produced using almost the same process and tools. Only concession to modernity, some models are fitted with a stainless steel blade, but the most appreciated remains the historical carbon steel.
The Capuchin monks (Capucin in French) gave their name to a coffee in Italy, the famous cappuccino, and to a knife in France! Not that it was used by the monks, but because the shape of the tip of the handle looks like the hood of the monks’ robe.
Cognet even made few of these knives figuring the actual face
It is one of the oldest knife styles and one that almost did not change since the medieval age.
It is in the category of the primitive knives or friction folders, and more specifically a “2 clous”, or 2 pins. The first friction folders were of a piedmontese style, like the famous higonokami for example, but the lever at the end of the knife is protruding when closed and can be uncomfortable or even dangerous when the knife is in the pocket.
Classic piedmontese style knife and Japanese Higonokami
The solution came with the “2 clous” where one pin is the blade axle and where the end of the blade rests on a second pin, making for a sleeker shape once folded.
The design cannot be simpler. The handle was originally in wood, with just a saw kerf to fold the blade and that specific Capuchin hood at the end to be able to grab the blade, as it does not have a nail nick.
Capucin by Darat from the 19th Century
Later the handle was made in a horn tip, from a ram or a bovine.
Capucin by Jouret in a blond horn
The blade has a “sage leaf” shape, very wide and thick, designed for heavy work.
The axle is often mounted on a rosette, to avoid braking the handle.
If the handle looses its tightness and the blade opens too easily, which can be dangerous in the pocket, there are 2 different techniques: hammering the pin or, for a wooden handle, dipping the handle in water and let the wood swell a little.
Those knives were very popular with the shepherds of the South-West France, in the Pyreneans. Some were even assembling the knives themselves. They were buying a blade, often sub-par, from a knife maker, selecting a horn and shape it and then simply installing the blade.
A classic piece, still popular today with some interesting modern interpretations.
