Laguiole - Official Knife of the Voyageurs

C

cliff355

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Apr 19, 2003
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This past week I made a trip up the North Shore of Lake Superior to Grand Portage, just south of the Canadian border. My last trip up there was about 9years ago, and since then they have built a nice historical center near the reconstructed stockade where the portage meets the lakeshore.

Alot of fur trading occured here in the mid-1700's, and Grand Portage (8.5 miles long) is where many of the voyageurs - French speaking Canadians - headed to the interior with their canoes.

In one of the historical center's display cases were a number of metal items excavated from along the portage trail and there were several folding knives -rusted shut but clearly recognizable. They were Laguioles, about 4" closed and there was no doubt about it.

I always thought the Voyageurs carried fixed blades in sheaths, but after giving it some thought the Laguiole makes sense. Voyageurs did not have pants pockets and carried all their "stuff" in a waist sash, so a folding knife would have been less risky.

Anyway, the Laguiole appears to be more authentic to early MN history than I thought and I'll be reconsidering it as a righteous knife to take to the woods.
 
As a history buff, I'm not surprised. It seems as though soon as man figured out how to make a folding knife, it became very popular. In the museum down at Jamestown Virginia, there are badly coroded remains of "clasp knives" that date to the colony's founding in 1608.

When I toured the fur trade museum at Bent's Old fort in Colorado, there were on display simple wood or bone handle that were similar in outline to an Opinel. it seems as if the old mountain men also found a use for a simple folder in thier possables bag.

Seems like a pocket knife is a good thing to have, no matter what age you found youself living in.:)
 
Awesome! Laguiole, a true American tradition (sort of)! Could you make out any details of the craftwork on the knives? Were they plain (like a toothpick) or did they exhibit some of the ornamentation you see on modern Laguioles?
 
Wintermute:

Those knives were in pretty bad shape after being buried in the ground for 200 or so years, and while they were distinguishable as Laguioles no filework was obvious.

However, given the Voyageur's penchant for brightly colored caps, beadwork and canoe ornamentation, I'm betting they had quite a bit of filework on their knives.
 
I hate it when someone mentions Laguiole on this board - then it sends me into a flurry of research and I realize how beautiful those things are. Then I lust after them, and my Teutonic brain goes into a cross-referencing flurry figuring out which brand was made where, which one has a welded bee, which one has hand filed backsprings, which one has an actual blade stop, etc.

thanks alot!
 
wintermute said:
I hate it when someone mentions Laguiole on this board - then it sends me into a flurry of research and I realize how beautiful those things are. Then I lust after them, and my Teutonic brain goes into a cross-referencing flurry figuring out which brand was made where, which one has a welded bee, which one has hand filed backsprings, which one has an actual blade stop, etc.

thanks alot!
Click to expand...
Save yourself some trouble: Laguiole de L'Artisan Prestige.

Mine is Amourette ("snake wood") with brass bolsters and 12C27 blade steel. Beautiful knives. In fact, I think mine needs some pocket time.

-- Sam
 
Yosemite shame on you for sharing that link.

I saw a picture of a folding kn ife in a museum which was beleived to have been hammered out of a horseshoe and belonged to Daniel Boone. It was a large sod buster or clasp knife design.
 
Great post! I am a direct descendant of Voyageurs, even grew up still living along one of the old canoe routes. No wonder I have such an affinity for laguiole knives.:)
 
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