Au Nain 10" Abattre / Lobster Splitter Handforged Carbon Steel Rosewood Rosette Rivets St Remy (Thiers) 1950s-60s

Hand-forged carbon steel, heavy 10" carbon steel "Abattre" (for use in butchery abbatoir), heavy butcher's chef knife, rosewood handle with applied stainless bolster, three brass-and-steel rosette rivets. 

These ‘Plate-Semelle’ or ‘flat plate’ flat forged knives were made in Thiers, France, in the 1950s. These were the working-class knives of their day. These stout butcher's knives with a chef knife profile are similar to a Japanese yo-deba but would have been used by butchers as a light cleaver; stiff and strong, with a good toughness and an excellent sharpenability.

Handles are tight and secure, and the wood will continue to develop a mellow tone with use and oils. Rosette rivets were largely phased out in the 1950's in Thiers with the adoption of versions of today's tubular cutlery rivets.

Plate-Semelle knives represent the last, large-scale commercial application of a very old forging technique. First, a bar of steel was drawn out to form the blade on an old martinet mechanical hammer. The tang (handle area) is next drawn out on the hammer, making for a tapered blade and tang, with a thick area where the two meet at the neck. When forging, a large bulge in the steel would remain, which would be hammered and ground to a small bulge.

The origins of the nearly ubiquitous bolster on western knives lie in this bulge of steel where the blade and tang meet. During the Middle Ages, fine cutlery offered at noble and church banquets was an important mark of wealth and power. In the making of fine cutlery, the bulge in the center of the knife was left thick and intricately ground, in addition to other embellishments to the knife. This feature became emblematic of fine cutlery. It lives on today in the more subdued, less ornate bolsters that characterize western culinary knives and still signify that a knife is of high quality.

Being handmade, there are slight differences between knives and they may have imperfections. They were made to be affordable, hard workers, without a lot of fuss.

New Old Stock, Vintage and New Old Stock knives do not come sharpened. Please request sharpening if desired in the order notes section of the cart page.