Here is a new step on the track of traditionnal french knives.
In this post, i will talk about relatively old models of knives (XVIIIe century and earlier, but as i said in the first post, it's very hard to find any archeologic proof of their existence, as the social elites, writers and such did not care much about the activities of farmers, and as these knives where meant to be used, not to show off and collected in conservatives conditions). Today: the Nontron, the "Capucin" and "Montpellier" models.
The Nontron
This very traditionnal pocket knive is one of the oldest we have in France. It originaly come from the département of "Dordogne" in the région of "Aquitaine" (between the Loire river and the Pyrénées mountains, south west of France, Dordogne is in the northern part of Aquitaine). It became popular during the XVIIIth century (it means it was existing before), and still produced nowadays (by the Chaperon company mainly, in the town of Nontron, precisely
) and quite famous.
Now, the knife itself. The most striking feature on this knife is the full "turned" (don't hit me if it's not the right word) boxwood handle with traditionnal heat etchings. I don't know if you use this wood much in America, but it's terrific. I've read it's just under ebony, concerning density, and in fact it takes a wonderful polish. We also notice the rotating lock like on the Opinel, we call this part of the knife the "virole". But as it's only made of steel on the Opinel, here it's made of brass mainly (just a steel plate on the flat side of the cylinder). Another feature is the shape of the blade, with the tip sligthly downward the axis of the blade, thus making a relatively straight edge. In my opinion, this shape is a remain of some scramasax (or seax, as you use to call it), or maybe is it simply functionnality that leads to this design. This knife comes in many sizes, some so small they enter in a nut or hazelnut shell!!! The pommel have also four different shapes. This one on the picture is called "sabot" (clog), another is simply a ball, one another virole (so a brass cylinder at both ends of the knife), and the last one is what we call "queue de carpe" (carp's tail), and is like a symetrical sabot. Oh, and i was almost forgeting, the blade is often carbon, but i think we can find stainless.
I had one of them in the hands, and they look pretty good, though simple and rustic. The blade comes razor sharp, though the edge is thicker than the Opinel (flat grind as well). The handle is well polished and have a really unique feeling once in the hand (it's soft, warm... woody). We see it's a crafted knife, not an industrial product like the Douk and Opinel are. It "smells" historic, ancient, that's something we appreciate here. The rotating ring lock is as reliable as on the opinel, and some details like the steel plate make look this knife trusty. And for less than 45EUR here (70USD, maybe), it makes a nice present for a friend, or to put in your own pocket.
The Capucin and the Montpellier
These knives are most certainly the older designs we can find. There is only one blade, one handle, and two pins, that's why we call this system "deux clous" (two nail/pins). In fact, to be absolutely franc, there is an older and simplier design we call "piémontais" (from a région of Italy) where there is only one pin (axis of the blade), and where a protruding blade tang simply lies on the handle, held in place by the thumb (as for the "deux clous"). Capucin and Montpellier had both handle in various materials (but often cow horn tip), unknown steels, and extremely rustic manufacturing. But after the industrial revolution, companies took these designs and produced them with accpetable and standard quality. Nowadays, Cognet (manufacturer of the Douk Douk, i remind you) is the only one i know still producing it, but i would be happy (and unsurprised) to be wrong. Steel is carbon (XC70 in France... guess you would call it 1065 or something like that) and grind is flat. On these knives, no corkscrew or awl, they always stay as simple as possible.
The most important problem on these knives is the absolute lack of any lock or blade stop. It can collapse on your finger during the smallest moment of inattention (though normally it's riveted tight, so there is enough friction to limit damages). Hopefully, they have been LOT of progress since that. The main interest is the very historical design. And here as well, my theory is that both blade shapes, especially the Montpellier's one, comes from seax. We can notice that these knives are relatively expensive: almost 70EUR (100USD), especially considering that they are dangerous to use. But, well, i presented them mainly as curiosities. I don't think in the land of the patent pending lock knife, such obsolete cutting things could have any success.
Next time, i will present more recent types of knives, mounted not in a single piece of horn or wood, but with liners, scales and rivets. Hope this post was interesting.
