Le Thiers® knife: a shared history

The knife Le Thiers is called so because of the town Thiers in the department Puy-de-Dôme in the region Auvergne. Thiers is the French cutlery capital city thanks to its dynamism and diversity. Thiers and the region around it has 700 years cutlery history. Still today you can find all the trades in this business activity area as the forge and the cutlery. More than 60 companies are settled in Thiers and the neighboring municipalities: they are an integral part of the French cutlery production including the Thiers knife but also the Laguiole knife, the Yssingeaux or the Capuchadou. There are plenty of French knives.
 
Fontenille Pataud, owner of the brand Capuchadou, offers several regional knives: the Laguiole knife, the Thiers, the Sperone (Corsican), the Saint-Bernard (Alpes) or the Laguiole Magnum.
 
The Laguiole knife design is the most important one regarding the turnover for most of the companies in this region (up to 70%) including the subcontractors.
 
These days the manufacture of the Thiers knife is checked and it is mandatory to respect a very precise bill of specifications. However, all the criteria are leaning towards four requirements: quality, traceability, territoriality and professional morality. The manufacturers must concur with the regulation of Jurande. During the production, all the steps and the square parts must be realized in the business activity area of Thiers. It is a registered design that helps the manufacturers and the clients to recognize the genuine Thiers. In a spirit of trust and quality the Thiers guild created this registration in 2014 for the design, the name and the logo.
 
The Thiers knife is nowadays offered by several craftsperson as table knives, pocketknives or even as razors. It’s up to you to choose a craftsman considering your criteria. Don’t hesitate to go on the Thiers knife fellowship website to make sure you are looking at a genuine Thiers knife (lethiers.fr): every craftsman is referenced.
 
The company Fontenille Pataud proposes these days 3 designs for the Thiers knife:
•    Le Thiers Classic range with a 10,5 cm blade and a liner lock system
•    Le Thiers Nature with a 11,5 cm blade and a lock back system that offers security and smoothness
•    Le Thiers Gentleman with a 12 cm blade and a lock back system that offers security and smoothness.