The Alpin knife, also known as the Savoyard, Mountaineer, alpinist or even Saint-Bernard was born towards the end of the nineteenth century.
Its exact origin is unknown but we can find a similar model in the other side of the Alps in Italy.
The first Alpin brand was registered by Rivière-Caburol in 1905.
It was the main competitor of the famous Opinel, born in the same region and at the same time.
Even Opinel made its own version at some point
The knife is simple. A Yatagan blade with a half-stop, a spring for the slipjoint system and the handle, that can be with or without bolsters, is made of 2 wooden side.
The first ones were using larch wood, but other woods appeared when all the production was finally transferred to Thiers, like other regional knives.
We also saw cattle horn and even acrylic in some cheaper models.
Coming from Thiers, its diffusion was wider than just the Alps and it was even sold in North-Africa.
The star was for the North African market
The Alpin knife still has modern interpretations and is still a very simple and appreciated knife.
The Yatagan knife gets its name from the Yataghan, or yatağan, a short sword in use in the Ottoman Empire until the late nineteenth century.
A Yataghan short sword
The blade is inspired by the sword blade.
That shape was probably bring back by the Napoleonic troops after their Egyptian campaign and the “orientalism” trend of the nineteenth century made the type popular.
The blade shape was later used to give the Laguiole knife its actual form.
It is a simple slipjoint, with its characteristic clip point blade, usually with a half-stop, a slightly arched handle and sides usually made of cattle horn.
The type was mainly used in the South-west of France.
The Basque Yatagan
Among all those South-West users were some tobacco growers who used their Yatagan to cut-off damaged or dirty tobacco leaves. But the tobacco plants produce a thick sap that was covering the knife’s handle, making it slippery.
A seller from Bergerac had the idea to add 10 protruding rivets to the handle to create some sort of grip.
That created the so-called Basque Yatagan, sometimes called only Basque knife.
Some of today’s interpretations of the knife keep those 10 rivets, but letting it flush with the handle, to make it more comfortable.
The city of Thiers finds its origin in the medieval age and can claim six centuries of cutlery tradition.
The legend says that the Crusaders bring back the secret of steel but the history of knife making can be dated back to the fifteenth century as tax registers mention thirty knife makers in the city that will turn to be 200 in the sixteenth century.
Oddly enough, the city didn’t have real assets to become the capital of knife making, there is no iron ore for the blades or sandstone to make grinding wheels, but there is the Durolle, the torrent that will provide enough energy for the cutlery machines, and the obstinacy and hard work of people living on a rocky, steep and hard territory, working in the fields in summer and making blades in winter.
Long before Henry Ford, it is in the fifteenth Century that the division of labor started in Thiers with people specialized in the various steps of knife making, to the final assembly. It was not anymore a single cutler that was making the entire knife.
The working conditions were really hard. The cutlers shaping the blades on the grinding wheels were called the “yellow bellies”, because, in the unique Thiers style, they were grinding the blades laying over the wheel, with a dog on their legs to keep them warm.
They were working down in the valley, next to the water that was used to provide the power.
On top of the cold and humidity, the noise of the machines is loud and, if the grinding wheel explodes, the cutler is projected to the ceiling, with a little chance of survival.
That part of the valley is called “Hell” (L’enfer in French), one of the buildings was even called like that.
L’enfer (Hell)
For the other specialties it is not more comfortable, the presses and hammering machines are dangerous and the temperature in the forge can reach 120F.
But that specialization and efficiency made that knife makers and merchants in various French regions were ordering knives to Thiers.
For instance, the cutlers from the village of Laguiole, in Aveyron, had to order knives in Thiers, as they were not able to keep up with the demand. Those knives were originally called “Laguiole style” before being definitively called Laguiole when all the production was finally done in Thiers.
Laguiole knife
The same story happened to different regions and cities, this is why most of the French knives have the name of a city or a region like Yssingeaux, Issoire, Alpin, Montpellier, Rouennais etc.
Yssingeaux
Rouennais
Yatagan
Saint-Martin
Thiers even produced some “Spanish” navajas.
When the city was, and is still today, making the knives of all the different French regions, it never had its own style of knife. It was corrected rather late, in 1994, when “Le Thiers” was created. It will be the object of a later article.
Le Thiers
Today electricity definitely replaced all the water powered machines and Thiers and its surroundings is still making between 70% and 80% of the French bladed tools, earning its status of French knife making capital, with its museum and “Coutellia”, the annual international blade show.
