Hand Forged Steel Laguiole Steak Knife Handmade Pocket Knives French Knife Steak Knife USA Made Wood Handle | BMK-622

Description

A folding Laguiole on warm, straight-grained timber, supplied with a stitched leather belt pouch rather than a flat slip.

Made for: carrying. The pouch has a snap flap and a belt loop, so this is the Laguiole you take to a picnic, a tailgate or a vineyard rather than the one that lives in a drawer. A 4.5 inch blade opens to 10 inches overall and folds back down to something that disappears on a belt.

Closing it properly

The spring on this pattern is stiff by design. Open the blade and you feel it snap past center and settle; there is no play at all once it is out. Closing takes a deliberate push, and the correct technique is to hold the handle in your palm with your fingers along the spine, not wrapped around the closing path of the edge. That habit is worth learning in the first five minutes rather than the hard way.

The timber

The grip is wood, not horn — you can read the parallel grain lines running the length of the handle in the photograph, warm brown and evenly figured. Wood behaves differently at a table than horn does. It grips better when your hands are greasy, it is more forgiving of a knock against a plate, and it will slowly darken where your thumb rests. What it will not tolerate is a dishwasher; heat and detergent lift the finish and raise the grain in a single cycle. A wooden handle also stays at room temperature. Steel and horn both feel cold when you first pick them up and timber never does, which is a small thing that matters at a table laid outdoors in spring.

The bolsters

Polished steel caps both ends of the handle. The front bolster carries the pivot and takes the load every time the blade swings, and the rear one is shaped into the upswept tail that stops the shut knife sliding off a sloped surface. Between them sits the spring, and set at its rear is the small bee that marks the pattern.

Care: towel the steel off before it returns to the pouch, and air the pouch separately if it has been rained on. A wet pouch left to dry around the knife is the usual culprit behind blade spotting. A drop of light oil on the pivot restores a stiff action. Keep the handle away from radiators and direct sun.

FAQs

Does the pouch come with it? Yes, hand-stitched leather with a snap closure.

Is the edge plain or serrated? Plain, and hand-finished on stones before dispatch.

Where is it made? Forged and assembled in our Memphis, Tennessee workshop.

Read the Laguiole pattern explained for the pattern’s background, honing versus sharpening for edge upkeep, and hand forged versus factory knives for how these are built.

Model: BMK-622