Forge de Laguiole vs Laguiole en Aubrac vs others

[lonestar1979]

A nice Forge de Laguiole knife came up and am wondering how is quality of this particular maker vs other major Laguiole companies.Is it better than Laguiole en Aubrac ,R.David and other similar priced ones?

 

[jsdistin]

I can’t say anything about the other two but the quality of Forge de Laguiole is quite good and is on par with say Case or something. I have two of these, they don’t get much use but they do sharpen quite well. The other thing that I will say for Forge de Laguiole is that Mont Blanc created a co-branded pen with them which to me lends them some respect and legitimacy.

 

[jsdistin]

I also got a Laguiole knife prior to my Forge de Laguiole knives and before doing much research which is complete and utter garbage that I will provide a picture of so that people can stay away from it, it doesn’t seem to have any brand name though. It has poor build quality and the corkscrew on the back has no spring to it and essentially has to be pushed closed.

 

[RayseM]

I've been researching this question myself recently. This particular company has a pretty stellar reputation. As stated above however - be aware that not all Laguiole knives are created equal. There is no licensing of that style and so they have been recreated by many with all the varieties of quality or lack of quality you can imagine.

A few other well respected companies making this style or similar knives are:

FONTENILLE PATAUD and Chambriard à Thiers

Here is an interesting video I found about the Forge -

.

Enjoy.

Ray

 

[The Zieg]

A nice Forge de Laguiole knife came up and am wondering how is quality of this particular maker vs other major Laguiole companies.Is it better than Laguiole en Aubrac ,R.David and other similar priced ones?

Two of the best easily-available knives of the Laguiole style are Fontanille-Pataud and en Aubrac. Their quality is noticably better than Forge de Laguiole and Au Sabot. R. David knives can be outstanding, but I have seen some that lack detailed fit and finish and so they can sometimes be uneven. A good seller will hand pick one for you, though, and exchange or refund if you are dissatisfied.

Check out Stephan Schmalhaus on YouTube for his video reviews. He covers about a dozen different Laguioles.

Zieg

 

[lonestar1979]

Maybe ill go with R David with stag handle for same price,have Laguiole en Aubrac and its excellent and also 2 made by Arto that are pretty well made too.Baladeo Laguiole made in China that i checked out recently was inexpensive but had very nice fit and finish too,the steel is probably some 400 stainless type but it was 20dollars us.

 

[lonestar1979]

I noticed that with a lot of knives you have to pick better ones out of bunch and that is a problem for me as i do most knife shopping online .Am going to knife store in few days to pick up R David stag handled Laguiole.

 

[ErikMB]

View attachment 892932 I also got a Laguiole knife prior to my Forge de Laguiole knives and before doing much research which is complete and utter garbage that I will provide a picture of so that people can stay away from it, it doesn’t seem to have any brand name though. It has poor build quality and the corkscrew on the back has no spring to it and essentially has to be pushed closed.

Sorry to resurrect this years later but I also had one of these pigs. The company is called Actiforge. It was fine except that the blade was misaligned and rubbed against the side when closing so it would eventually grind down. That never should have passed quality control.

I returned to the crook who runs laguiole.com named Richard Anselmo, who decided he was somehow insulted so he did not replace, refund, or return the knife, so I was left with nothing.

I strongly suggest never purchasing an Actiforge and especially NEVER do business with laguiole.com. There exists a long list of complaints about them all over the internet.

 

[* KnifeLife*]

I'm adding my pennies.

First..thanks for the heads-up !

....next thought....I'm always hunting a good deal on a "true" Laguiole hand crafted knife on line.

Now to find a real one....not a fake...is extremely difficult.

The price used to be the EZ giveaway.
Pakistan and China junk are mixed in....people also "think" they have a real one to sell....but it's fake and don't realize it !

But I recently saw a seller IMO...all fakes...but priced them appropriately to carry the scam.
Lot of knives including Spyderco.
A long BS story is common to distract from the knife.
This guy's story was convincing....but just because it says seki-japan on the blade doesn't me a quality knife.
Lots of companies in Seki....not an indicator of quality at all.

Lot's of knowledge neccessary to ID a fake without holding it.
The "bee" is giveaway many times....no bee should have squared off wings....ever !
Certain makers like Forge de Laguiole usually keep a similar bee style on their knives.
The spine is always done by hand so imperfections should be seen.

G DAVID sticks to a similar bee of his style on his knives

Custom work is different....may have other designs other than a bee.

The info on base of blade missing on many of them.

Pretty good on some stamps to the blade.
Look genuine.

Bouanga is Pakistan.

It's recommended to avoid buying on line currently because need a trained eye.

Good luck !

 

[PocketKnifeJimmy]

Some years back I decided that I wanted to add a specimen of a traditional Laguiole pocket knife into my collection.
Well, I had already received a few foreign made knives from a, (now defunct), online vendor called 'World Knives'. They carried knives in their US based headquarters that were not so commonly available from other US based sources. Anyhow, I was having good luck in dealing with them, and since they carried 'Forge De Laguiole', I wound up buying a couple from them, (one for myself, and one for my son in law). I believe they cost me in the ballpark range of $150 each. They were offering them in a few sizes, and in a few different handle scale materials, but they weren't offering them in any different levels of embellishment and such.
They, (Forge De Laguiole), seem to be a very respectable Laguiole knife manufacturer, and they seem to offer basic specimens, right on up to more highly embellished and refined custom grade versions.
I can say this about my specimen, it has the tell tale signs of a good quality hand crafted item, even with it only being a more basic model from them.
It's price of about $150 or so, (and again, for a fairly basic model), kept me from adding any more into the collection. That said, it fits right in with my eclectic collection of do-dads

The blade is made from a forged stainless steel, a handle of Ebony wood, and brass bolsters/liners.
It also has a hand chiseled/engraved backspring and bee.


While some Laguiole knives are made with kicks that allows one to drop the blade into the frame when folding it closed, this knife follows the traditionally done "no kick" method. That means, if one lets the blade close into the frame without controlling it's landing, the blade's edge will slam into the backspring. So, many first time Laguiole owners not familiar with this, will damage the blade's edge by not controlling the closure of the blade all the way down.
My two recent Joker Navaja type folders are in that catagory too, no kick to prevent the blade edge from contacting the backspring upon closure.
I only mention this to possibly help prevent a new owner of such designs from damaging their blade right from the get go of receiving their new knives
This is not an error in manufacturing, but rather a part of the original knife's design.

 

[Jolipapa]

View attachment 892932 I also got a Laguiole knife prior to my Forge de Laguiole knives and before doing much research which is complete and utter garbage that I will provide a picture of so that people can stay away from it, it doesn’t seem to have any brand name though. It has poor build quality and the corkscrew on the back has no spring to it and essentially has to be pushed closed.

Price tag is slightly different...