The Fontenille Pataud Story

My name is Gilles Steinberg and it is with pleasure that I introduce you to our company. Fontenille Pataud is located in Thiers, the mecca of French cutlery (like Solingen is in Germany or Sheffield in England), in the beautiful volcanic region of Auvergne in France. Since the 1920s, FONTENILLE PATAUD has made fine cutlery its core business.

The knife handles were crafted from genuine ivory, ebony as well as horn. These knifes were very popular and sold in the best shops in France, Germany, and Switzerland. Now because of modernization and new technologies, our a new way of life has changed a lot.
The invention of the dishwasher changed handle preference, natural materials became less favored to be replaced up to a point by the convenience of plastic. In 1994, I purchased the company from its original owner and made a decision to return to the fine craft of specialty knives. Since 1995, Fontenille-Pataud has restarted production of fine folding knives, specifically the LAGUIOLE knives. Those products were (and is still are) 80% made in Thiers, but the niche market of artisan crafting Laguiole knives remains yet confidential.
It was a major decision to adopt as a policy "home and handmade in France".

We believe in only using the finest of materials available and are proud of our handcrafting. Unlike several other manufacturers, we focus on quality and not volume. For your information, it is important for you to know LAGUIOLE is not a brand name, neither is it a trademark nor a label. There are NO real or fake laguiole knives, only good ones and bad ones.  Anyone can manufacture and market Laguiole goods from anywhere in the world. Therefore, buying in the village of Laguiole or at someone pretending to be "authentic" is NOT a garantee.  For our part, we have decided to keep making knives the old way in the full respect of the art.
In 1997, we chose to register our best knives under the Gilles® signature. To this day we still struggle with non branded Laguiole products (mainly made in China) but more and more we find that our consumers make the difference between artisan-crafted products and inexpensive, poorly assembled goods. Each year we introduce new models and we keep improving our lines. Our Corsican knives, Damascus blades, Laguiole NATURE,  SPORT and GENTLEMAN knives are just a few examples.

I am also proud of the fact that very early on we have understood how the net could help us commercialize our products. Indeed, as of 1998 we were the first the first small specialty company to show and sell directly its production to the general public, over the internet. 

Word of mouth from our pleased customers is our best advertisement. 
We have been awarded prizes by the French government for our efforts. We do exhibit three times a year in the main European trade shows. This has helped us to export more than 50% of our production.
Our sincere thanks to all of our faithful customers.

We work hard to earn your trust in hand made products, made in France.