Yobbos, you may well be right that it is a factory second. It does look like it should. Looks well finished,with the pins and the cross finished flush with the horn. That part of the bolster which is cut away to accommodate the bee/fly is done as well as in the Laguiole de L'artisan. Knife appears to have been made by some one with some skill and taking some trouble. Looks to me like the standard Forge de Laguiole line. Just the mystery of the missing tang stamp.
Was wondering why you classed it as having inferior horn, looks OK to me and fitted well to the bolster.
Laguioles commonly come with either solid horn tip (the better quality) or compressed hollow horn from the main bodies of the horns. I do not know if you can tell them apart by just looking.
While I prefer multi-coloured horn like in your Laguiole de L'artisan, colour alone does not denote quality. Just a matter of preference. Good horn tips can come in solid black too.
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