Coutellerie de Laguiole Honoré Durand

La Coutellerie de Laguiole-Honoré Durand is known throughout the world as one of the very finest producers of Laguiole style knives

The Durand Company is a family passion, the passion for the Laguiole knife

Laguiole knives are world renown as some of the best quality and craftsmanship on the market today. The company has adapted age old Laguiole traditions in the process of hand crafting each and every knife: Each knife is made 100% by hand from start to finish by the same knife maker. This includes hand sanding and hand carving the spine, handle, and the famous bee emblem. Laguiole knives have become synonymous with the bee, which adorns its spine.

La Coutellerie de Laguiole’s line includes pocket knives, pocket knives with key chains, steak knives, corkscrews (le sommelier), cutlery set, butter knives…

Some of the exotic woods in their handle range include olive wood, snakewood, rosewood,  marblewood, purplewood, european birch, briarwood, boxwood, juniperwood…, as well as a stag and buffalo horns.

Thanks to its rewarded experience, the workshops offer a range of classical models respectful of the history, the legends and the traditions of the Aubrac region.
Contrary to what one can figure out, even in Laguiole, the manufacturers are rare.

The cutlery’s workshops

Arts and Craft prestige: 109 operations for a Laguiole knife with blade only and 216 for a Laguiole knife with blade, corkscrew and punch. The handcrafted production is a long process which is the only way to guarantee that each knife is unique.

- Forging: The steel is heated until it is cherry red and will be forged while hot to give the legendary sharp blades. The forging combined to the tempering (heated and then cooled down in an oil bath to give the blade its hardness and elasticity) this enables La Coutellerie de Laguiole to obtain a blade with a perfect cutting edge. Blades are then shaped, pierced and given their edge angle. The steel combines durability, resilience and the ease of sharpening. The forging process together with the hardening of the blade, will give a perfect sharpness

- Chiselling and Carving: In the past, on this part of the knife, each craftsman used to sculpt a pattern which represented his inspiration and reflected his talent. Many older models were decorated with the scallop shell carried by pilgrams to Saint Jacques de Compostelle, four leaf clovers and animal heads. The bee became the standard decoration later in the development of the knife. La Coutellerie de Laguiolle-Honore Durand has honored this tradition and makes models with traditional bees as well as customized bees, on individualized pieces. Each knife made with a bee is still hand chiselled in the traditional manor

- Assembling: Each knife maker adjusts his knife by hand and so he corrects the blade stop. This avoids the thread from becoming blunt by the spring when the knife is closing. Here, the craftsman gives the knife the definitive shape. Plates and springs can be chiselled or smoothed: rivets can be simple or quilted. Each knife is unique. Each piece is assembled and finished by hand from start to finish by the same knife maker

One man, one knife: The handcraft workmanshift respects the ancestral tradition of original Laguiole knives. The knives are manufactured from start to end by the same cutler. When a set of knife is finished, the foreman controls it quality, erase the imperfections and then the knives are rubbed and labelled

Awards, honour … and monument…: A recognized and awarded savoir-faire