Laguiole Knives, Explained: What They Are and How to Choose a Real One
A Laguiole knife is a slim, gently curved French knife with a bee on its spring. The first one was made in the village of Laguiole, on the Aubrac plateau of southern France, in 1829, and the design has barely changed since. What has changed is who makes them: the name was never protected, so most of the “Laguiole” knives sold online have never been near France. Here is what the real thing is, how to recognise one, and how to choose between steak knives, cheese knives and a full set of flatware.
What a Laguiole knife is
Laguiole (say la-YOLE; the g is silent) began as a folding pocket knife for the cattle farmers and shepherds of the Aubrac. Three details define it. The blade is long and narrow with a slight upward sweep toward the point, a line borrowed from the Spanish knives that migrant workers brought home. The spring along the back of the handle carries a small forged ornament, the bee, which purists insist is a fly and everyone else calls a bee. And the handle is built from two slim slabs of wood, horn or resin fixed with brass or steel pins; on traditional folding models the pins form a small cross, said to have served as a crucifix for shepherds too far from a church.
The table knife is the twentieth-century descendant of that pocket knife: the same blade line and bee, fixed rather than folding, sized for a steak, a cheese board or a place setting. It is the form most people now mean when they say Laguiole, and it is what we sell.
Why the name alone proves nothing
“Laguiole” is a place, not a brand, and the village never secured the name. In the 1990s an outside businessman registered it as a trademark for everything from knives to barbecues; the courts eventually treated the word as a common noun, which means anyone, anywhere, may stamp it on a blade. The cheap sets with a bee and a French-sounding box are made in China or Pakistan. In 2022 France finally granted the knife a geographical indication, so the name now has a legal meaning for knives made in the historic cutlery areas; outside that, the word is still free for anyone to use. The practical rule has not changed: the name tells you the shape. The maker tells you the quality.
Jean Dubost: Thiers, since 1920
Thiers, in the Auvergne, has made France’s knives for six centuries, and the Dubost family has made them there since 1920. The company is still family-run, now in its fourth generation, from a workshop in Viscomtat a few kilometres from the town. Blades are stainless steel, ground and polished in-house; handles are fitted and riveted by hand, in resin for everyday sets and in wood or horn for the dressier ones; and every knife is signed on the blade. That signature is the point. A Jean Dubost Laguiole is a knife you can trace to a street, a family and a year.
How to tell a real one
| Look for | A French-made Laguiole | A lookalike |
|---|---|---|
| The blade | Signed with the maker’s name (Jean Dubost, Forge de Laguiole, Laguiole en Aubrac) and marked France | Says only “Laguiole”, or nothing, or “stainless steel” |
| The bee | Shaped in the spring itself, crisp and slightly raised | Soft, flat or glued on |
| The fit | Rivets flush, handle slabs tight to the spring, no gaps or glue lines | Loose slabs, uneven pins, a blade that rattles |
| The weight | Balanced at the bolster; the knife rests in the hand | Light and blade-heavy |
| The price | Roughly $100 to $450 for six French-made steak knives | $20 for six, with a wooden box |
Steak knives, cheese knives or flatware
Most people come to Laguiole through steak knives, and that is the right place to start. A set of six covers a dinner table and makes the single most useful object on it; the blade is sharp enough for a rare rib-eye and polite enough for a roast chicken. We carry the black Laguiole set of six in a presentation box, and the Jean Dubost set of six for a table that will use them every night; both are in our Laguiole and Jean Dubost collection.
Cheese knives are the second habit. The Laguiole cheese set is three small tools, a narrow blade for hard cheese, a spreader for soft, and a forked blade for cutting and lifting, and they do more for a cheese board than any amount of styling. The mini black cheese set is the easy gift; the three-piece cheese set is the heirloom. Both belong beside a jar of fig jam and whatever you are pouring; see our notes on building an aperitivo.
A full set of Laguiole flatware, usually 24 pieces for six place settings of knife, fork, spoon and teaspoon, all with the bee, is the choice for a wedding, a first house or a table that has outgrown its mismatched drawer. Judge it the way you would the knives: a signed blade, a crisp bee and a tight fit.
Caring for Laguiole knives
Wash them by hand in warm water, dry them at once and put them away; that is the whole regime. Resin handles will survive a dishwasher, wood and horn will not, and every blade keeps its edge longer out of one. Stainless is not stain-proof: lemon, vinegar and dishwasher salt leave spots if left to dry on the steel, so rinse promptly. Keep the knives in their box or a drawer where the edges do not knock together. A few strokes on a steel before a dinner party restores the edge; once a year, a whetstone. Wooden handles like a drop of mineral oil twice a year, rubbed in and wiped off.
Questions
Are Laguiole knives serrated? Traditional ones are not. A smooth blade slices rather than saws, is kinder to plates, and can be sharpened for life; a serrated edge cannot.
Is Laguiole a brand? No. It is a village and a style of knife. The brand is the maker whose name is on the blade.
What is the bee for? It is the end of the spring that locks the blade on a folding knife, finished as an ornament. On a table knife it is decorative, and it is the quickest way to spot a careless copy.
Can Laguiole knives go in the dishwasher? Resin-handled sets can, though they will last longer and stay sharper if they do not. Never put wood or horn handles in one.
Where are Jean Dubost knives made? In the Thiers cutlery basin in the Auvergne, by the Dubost family, since 1920.
Do they make a good gift? A boxed set of six is one of the few gifts that gets used every day for the rest of someone’s life. See the whole Laguiole and Jean Dubost collection, or browse gifts by price.