Thiers' knife museum

[Âchillepattada]

Hello,
Here you will find a tour of the museum, thanks to Couper au couteau and Jonathan P. of Neoczen .







































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[Âchillepattada]

 

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[Will Power]

A superb tour thanks! Really interesting materials and knives, some of those kitchen blades are really impressive. The working conditions look pretty grim though, men on those grindstones or buffing wheels, arduous

Wealth of information here from a world HQ of cutlery, and one that still produces to this day, a good volume of very decent knives too.

Thanks, Will

 

[Just Tom.]

The working conditions look pretty grim though, men on those grindstones or buffing wheels, arduous

That was my first reaction as well. The “emouleur” seems to have had the worst job of the bunch.

Fascinating tour though, and beautiful knives. It is interesting how the different workshops specialized in different steps in the process of knife making and the pieces were transported between them.

 

[Eli Chaps]

Thank you so much for sharing. I will come back to this thread tonight with two-fingers of Bushmills in a tumbler and more time to marvel and enjoy.

 

[ISKRA]

Very interesting. Appears to be well worth a visit.

 

[Peregrin]

Âchillepattada
Thanks for posting this tour! It'll give me a reason to brush up on my French!

 

[abcdef]

They made some interesting and cool things back in the day.

 

[Jolipapa]

Great idea! Thank you for the pictures. I hope I make the trip someday. It makes me regret that so many fine patterns are no more produced.

 

[jackknife]

Theres something I always wondered.

France is the only place I've ever seen that the blade grinders were laying face down while grinding. Solingen, Sheffield, the New England cutlery firms in the U.S., all sat/stood facing the machine.

Is there some arcane reason the French grinders lay down like that? I've never seen or heard a reason to my recollection.

Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[kai76]

Thanks for the tour, very interesting and some really beautiful old knives!

 

[gunstockjack]

Fantastic! Thank you so much for the amazing tour.

 

[Prester John]

Merci pour la tour, mon ami.

 

[eisman]

Excellent post! Thank you very much. Putting this place on my bucket list.

 

[Half/Stop]

Excellent! Thanks so much for the tour!

 

[JohnDF]

Thanks for taking us on the tour.

 

[Âchillepattada]

Theres something I always wondered.

France is the only place I've ever seen that the blade grinders were laying face down while grinding. Solingen, Sheffield, the New England cutlery firms in the U.S., all sat/stood facing the machine.

Is there some arcane reason the French grinders lay down like that? I've never seen or heard a reason to my recollection.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Hi,
The only reason I've heard is the better control of the arms/hands and the strength you get. But what a hell for the neck bones.
What is not shown is that those workers trained dogs to lie down on their legs to warm them up to limit the difference of temperature from the head ( placed near a warm grinding stone) and their frosen legs in a wet and cold room ( because the building was always in the border of a river to get its energy) .

And I don't talk about all of them who died in atrocious suffering when the grinding stone placed under them exploded because of a defect.

So yes, I agree, it has been the golden age of the french cutlery but with horrible living conditions .

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[Jolipapa]

Theres something I always wondered.

France is the only place I've ever seen that the blade grinders were laying face down while grinding. Solingen, Sheffield, the New England cutlery firms in the U.S., all sat/stood facing the machine.

Is there some arcane reason the French grinders lay down like that? I've never seen or heard a reason to my recollection.

Inquiring minds want to know.

I think this was typical to Thiers, unfortunately most of other cutlery places Paris, Langres, Nogent, Châtellerault) ceased before photography spread, so no possible comparison.
The reason may be that all the factories were along the river, outside down below the big windows flows the Durolle powering the watermills. Maybe a way to limit belts length and get more power (on the pictures the axle is unvisible and the belt hidden). Just my 2cts.

@Âchillepattada
There must have been some good reason to call the Durolle valley in Thiers and the mountain, la vallée des usines la vallée de l'enfer (Hell's valley).
For a long time, the other industry was paper, but mid XIXth century the big firms did not integrate all the trades in one factory as the cutlers did, and disappeared.
Most workers worked only part time for cutlers, they did not live in town and were also peasants (ground is not very fertile and winters are b...y cold).
They were tough guys, the Résistance freed the town, the local FTPs kicking an SS battalion out!