In the Puy-de-Dôme department of Auvergne, in the heart of France, lies Thiers—a city renowned throughout the country as the historic capital of the cutlery industry. For more than seven centuries, the skilled craftsmen of Thiers have supplied both domestic and professional kitchens in France and abroad with essential steel cutlery, especially knives.
The origins of knife-making in Thiers likely date back to the Middle Ages, with the first documented mention of local cutlers appearing in the 15th century. Yet nothing inherently destined this Auvergne town for such a vocation. Thiers lacked both iron ore for blades and sandstone for grinding wheels. What it did have was the fast-flowing Durolle River, whose energy powered waterwheels and machinery, and a tenacious, hard-working population, who toiled in the fields during summer and turned to blade-making in the winter months.
Long before Henry Ford pioneered the assembly line, the division of labour had already taken root in Thiers, where specialists focused on different stages of the knife-making process—from blade shaping to final assembly. Steel bars were first processed by martinaires, who thinned them using trip hammers powered by the Durolle River. Blacksmiths then forged the knife components, which were subsequently passed on to filers, drillers, grinders, and polishers, who sharpened and polished the blades on river-driven grindstones. Manufacturers tempered the blades, while handle-makers supplied the handles. Final assembly was typically carried out by workers in the suburbs of Thiers.
Since the Middle Ages, working conditions in the cutlery industry have been notoriously harsh and physically demanding. To spare themselves the hunched, painful posture common in other trades, knife grinders often worked lying prone on their stomachs as they sharpened blades against rotating grindstones. While this unusual position helped prevent back injuries and improved efficiency, it came with serious risks. The grindstones—frequently driven at high speeds by the force of the Durolle River—could shatter without warning, sometimes with fatal consequences for nearby workers.
The environment in which these craftsmen laboured was equally unforgiving. Many workshops were located deep in the gorges of the Durolle, where cold temperatures and constant humidity prevailed. In metalworking shops, ambient heat could exceed 50°C, and the air remained perpetually damp. Workers operated powerful, often dangerous machinery—trip hammers, steam hammers, and cutting presses—that required constant vigilance to avoid severe injury or death. The relentless noise and poor air quality, worsened by coal dust from furnace heating, added to the overall severity of the working conditions.
With industrialization, the knife factories of Thiers gradually moved away from their reliance on the Durolle River, whose seasonal flow was unpredictable, and transitioned to electric power. Knife production continued to thrive until the early 1970s, after which the industry entered a period of gradual decline, driven largely by increasing foreign competition, especially from low-cost manufacturers in Asia. Many local firms were forced to shut down, posing serious challenges to the survival of Thiers’ centuries-old cutlery tradition.
In response, the municipality took steps to preserve and promote this unique cultural and industrial heritage. In 1982, the Cutlery Museum (Musée de la Coutellerie) was established to showcase seven centuries of knife-making history. The city also launched the Coutellia Festival, an international event that draws artisan cutlers and knife-makers from around the world. In 1993, a signature knife model—Le Thiers—was introduced as a collective trademark to embody the town’s enduring craft. Although the cutlery businesses have now moved away from the banks of the Durolle, they still account for more than 70% of France’s knives, ranging from simple tableware to high-end, handcrafted collector’s pieces.
Image credit: Knives of France
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