How Forge de Laguiole's blades are made

How Forge de Laguiole's blades are forged

It is rare to find a Laguiole manufacturer that produces truly forged blades. Although Forge de Laguiole is one of them, they do not use hammer forging techniques as it would make the retail price unaffordable. Instead, they use a 300-ton press to forgetheir T12 blades. T12 steel, which is exclusively made for Forge de Laguiole, is known for its durability, rust resistance, and ease of sharpening. The company's unique forging methods, coupled with tempering, create a blade with a perfect cutting edge. The steel used is sourced from the Isère region of France and is forged in-house in the village of Laguiole.

The first stage is to cut the “skeleton” of the blades before placing them in the induction oven

These are then heated until they are cherry red (to 900/1000ºC for 6 seconds in the induction oven). The blades are then forged using a sledgehammer (300-ton pressure). This gives us the first blades with the shape of the back, the cutting edge and the heel.

The blade is then shaped when cold using an awl (the 'lifetime' of a single awl is between 15-20 000 blades), and stamped with the Forge de Laguiole logo.

After the blade is cut with a guillotine, using molds and a 60-ton press (the waste material is melted down for recycling).

Once the blade is cut it is slightly bent, so before tempering it in oil we straighten it to restructure the metal. To achieve this we heat the blades in a basket (200 blades per basket) to more than 1000ºC for an hour, then immediately drop them in oil to cool them down. Once the blades are cold they are then reheated to 200ºC for annealing. The blades are shaped to give them their V-edge angle using a special machine to grind the blade.

Annealing: The metal is heated to a temperature near fusion point then slowly cooled to give the steel a homogenous structure.

Tempering: Now, the metal is heated to a high temperature then quickly cooled in oil to give a highly resistant, but more brittle steel.

Hardening: Once the steel is tempered we heat it gently to reduce the brittleness, which is how we choose the resistance of the blade.

If it is heated for too long or too quickly, the surface of the steel tends to swell. This has an adverse effect on the cutting quality of the blade.To maintain the surface we have to ensure the line at which the status of the metal changes is only crossed slightly, and for a very short length of time. The difficulty comes when this line changes position (height) depending on the content of the steel. This is why we need to achieve temperatures of around 900º/1000ºC.

Making the bolsters and liners

Bolsters and liners are available in two kinds of steel.
1) T12 steel (forged at high temperature)
2) Brass (forged without heating / cold forged)

The T12 steel bar is heated to 900°-1000°C then forged.

Then the bar is cut off

The liners are then pierced and polished before being assembled.

The springs are cut without heating.

The end is heated, then flattened with a press. This gives us the flat part of the spring where the bee will be forged.

The bee and the top part of the spring are then sculpted (the decoration on the spring is known as the guillochage.

Just like for the blades the spring is heated to 1000°C, then tempered in oil and followed by hardening.

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Laguiole Forged Blades

How Forge de Laguiole's blades are made

How Forge de Laguiole's blades are forged

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