Laguiole: The story of an exceptional knife

A beautiful book on a legendary knifeThe bee that adorns the Laguiole knife is its standard-bearer. The Laguiole, a peasant knife from Aubrac, born in Laguiole in the workshop of a simple cutler-blacksmith, has entered legend. Today, it is a cultural marker linked to attachment to a preserved and authentic territory, and a symbol of a French way of life.Who could have guessed that a knife, born on the Aubrac mountains, could make its way to Paris in the pockets of bougnats, and over time acquire the artistic nobility bestowed upon it by the craftsmen Calmels, Pagès, and Crocombette?Christian Lemasson introduces us to the birth of the Laguiole, the life of the first workshops in their Aubracian setting. He tells us how this knife conquered the Capital and takes the opportunity to correct certain misconceptions, as reality is sometimes more beautiful than legend.Christian Lemasson, an ethnographer, is a specialist in the history of French cutlery, regularly collaborates with a fine cutlery magazine where he combines reports on cutlery news and historical articles. He has participated in documentaries on the Laguiole knife, broadcasted on the television channels France 3, France 5, and Arte. His attachment to the land of his Aveyronnais ancestors led him to delve into the history of the knife his great-grandfather had given him. Not content with the legend, he undertook his quest, for eight years, with the tools of a historian.