Le Thiers Knife

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks, my larger knife the Compagnon, sliced down through it without much effort at all, wider blade, larger handle, all made it a little easier.
One thing I do like about flat ground blades, if years later the knife is harder to cut with due to repeated sharpenings, you can sand down the flats of the blade to bring it back to the original profile. It's a bit of work, but once done it will cut far better than having a thick bevel.
G2

 

[B.F.U]

You're most welcome MrVandercar, as long as you are not poking with a Chambriard, I guess we're all safe

My wife sometimes hates my hobbies, but I try to tell her the phone book, we live in the country and they are not nearly as large as a big city, the book will fit in the drawer easier with the corner off

just a quick shot and a push cut down through the phone book, need good blade geometry in order to do so, a lot of knives have too thick an edge to make as clean a cut, especially when it's such a small folder too.

G2

and yep the pennies aka shekels are almost there! now to decide what scales !

Man, that is dern impressive! I have been really liking the pictures you and others have posted of these knives... I guess I have another knife to see if its a viable purchase for me!

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks, it's a wider cut, didn't see the point of just nipping off the very corner, so made the blade reach across a bit and she went straight through, pretty cleanly, there are some thicker pages inside the phone book that you can see here, but the cut was quite clean and smooth across the face.

G2

 

[liamstrain]

Oh man... just what I needed... another object d'lust. :/

My wallet sends it's regards.

Beautiful knives though - I'll have to do a little saving.

 

[RobbW]

Gary, that's an impressive edge and an impressive cut. You mentioned that the bevel was acute, but the sharpened edge that I can see doesn't look that wide to my eyes. This must indicate that the blade geometry from the factory is quite thin. Is that correct? Is this blade more like an Opinel in thinness than some of the thicker grinds we see in the US? At what angle did you sharpen? Nicely done!!

You're most welcome MrVandercar, as long as you are not poking with a Chambriard, I guess we're all safe

My wife sometimes hates my hobbies, but I try to tell her the phone book, we live in the country and they are not nearly as large as a big city, the book will fit in the drawer easier with the corner off

just a quick shot and a push cut down through the phone book, need good blade geometry in order to do so, a lot of knives have too thick an edge to make as clean a cut, especially when it's such a small folder too.

G2

and yep the pennies aka shekels are almost there! now to decide what scales !

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks Robb, hard to tell the angle as I do it free hand, but probably around 20 degrees or less would be my guess.
While the Opinels come down to a more convex edge, these are more flat ground but still are similar in thinness at the edge like the Opinel's. But a thicker spine which adds a bit more blade there. Also the blade has a distal taper, narrowing in thickness from the bolsters to the tip and from the spine to the edge, so everything is getting thinner as you progress away from the bolster, making it a nice cutter.

G2

 

[RobbW]

Wow! Those are really even, parallel edges for freehand sharpening! My hat is off to you, sir.

I like what you describe about the thin, tapering blade geometry. I also like the French tradition of using juniper handles. I can easily see a small or medium Le Thiers in my future.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

I've become quite the fan of the Chambriard made folders the overall lines are very flowing, I know somewhere I had expounded about them, but in a nutshell;

The lines of the knife both open and closed

Curved handle, fits the hand in use in a variety of grips, nicely

Curved Stainless bolsters and stainless pivot pin

Curved fitted up scales to the bolsters, nice touch

Sandvik 13c26 stainless razor steel, very keen AND there is no interruption along the edge, no sharpening choil, which I really dislike as those notches always want to hang up on material...

The plunge line of the grind, close to the bolster and also at a similar matching angle
(I've seen some Le Thier's type folders that have a similar look but with a more perpendicular plunge line, which breaks up the flow of the lines...to me at least)

Fileworked back spring

Forged in wider area at the pivot for the spring with the T. there, not seen others make this effort, adds a lot to the knife.

While I've not taken to getting any other French knives, except for the Opinels, the Chambriard is taking all of my money

G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Well, it's official, I've put in my request for the Le Trappeur in stag to go along with my Le Compact and Le Compagnon shown below, that will round out my Chambriard collection nicely, I'll update my photo once it arrives, but it's still in France so it will be a while before I'm able to get her I'm afraid but it'll be worth the wait I'm sure !

G2

 

[leomitch]

You bet it's worth the wait Gary! Chambriard knives rock big time.

Congratulations mate
Leo

 

[RobbW]

Nice Gary. It's like you're completing a long separated family!

 

[Will Power]

These are really excellent knives and they slice expertly.

Sad to say, my stag Compact has gone missing. Searched everywhere and driven myself mad in the process, I fear I left it at a hotel during a trip at the end of September...a real shame as the stag on it was mellowing to a very rich colour. Still, I've got the ebony Compact and ebony Compagnon.

Thanks, Will

 

[Gary W. Graley]

That's terrible news Will, hope you find it !!!
I lost one once in Henryetta Oklahoma, Holiday Inn, crazy story on that, still miss that knife!
Back in the 80's, there to do some training at the Anchor Glass factory, went back to get my knife in the room, they had removed my door !!! took over 3 months to ever get a check from them, but they finally did. They were re-veneering the doors and never told anyone.

G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Nice Gary. It's like you're completing a long separated family!

Thanks Robb, I know they will be happy to be back together again, long travels for them, from France, to Washington state back across the USA to PA, lots of flying time there!!!
G2

 

[littleknife]

I just looked up the the Chambriard Le Trappeur, and it is indeed a very nice + strong knife.
Congratulations Gary, you will have a trio which will easily cover most of any cutting tasks you might encounter, and in addition, do it in impeccable style & elegance too! :thumbup::thumbup: (couldn’t find the ‘green with envy’ emoticon. )

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Well the good news is, it may get here before Christmas! If so, I'll check it over and then let my wife box it up and put it under the Christmas tree, now THAT will be hard!!!

G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

JUST before Christmas indeed, here are my Stag Chambriards, Le Trappeur the largest one, has a mid lock, blade opens VERY easily and locks up solid, very nice!

The inside edges of the frame/scales were pretty sharp, while the blade, not so much, but that was expected and now she is quite sharp!

The larger model comes with a horizontal style sheath, but when worn, the pressure from the belt against the knife makes it hard to draw out, so, I took a strip of leather, wrapped it around the existing belt loop and put a snap on that so now I can wear it as a vertical sheath, works great and if I ever decide to go back to horizontal, I can just unsnap and pull the leather loop out.

Here are a couple quick shots, the stag is very nice on all three;

as is the file worked spines

Merry Christmas to me, while I was going to wrap her up and open on Christmas morn, it's too close, so I'll just wear her to work tomorrow !
G2

 

[whetrock]

These are very stylistic to my eye. I like the overall profile. Sandvik, whether it be 12C27 or 13C26, or 14C28N, has been good to me, very nice steel that takes a downright scary edge. The lighter blade profiles are what keep me coming to French cutlery. I think overbuilt blades, particularly in folders doesn't appeal to me like they used to.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

I agree, stylish for sure, a lot going on in a subtle style.

Here's some shots of that belt loop addition I made so that you can wear their sheath vertical if you want too, also allows that if you want to remove the sheath without undoing your belt, you can unsnap and pull it off the belt. It doesn't make it extend much farther out than before.

for the other two, they ride in sheaths I've made and they are secure and easy to get to, the wider bolster snaps into the sheath nicely.

G2

 

[J D Wijbenga]

Good to see you have the 'family' finally complete Gary! Great pictures as usual.