More Gentlemen’s Knives from France

[Leo James Mitchell]

I was so impressed with the Chambriard Le Trappeur knife that I posted here earlier, I had to get the set of three. So I got Le Trappeur’s little brother and baby brother. They are in every way gorgeous pieces of cutlery made by hand to a large extent with loving care. Philippe Chambriard is a gentleman who produces some of France’s premier cutlery and in particular those made in the city of Thiers, the centre of the country’s cutlery industry. He gives excellent and prompt service much as does Clay…trustworthy and dedicated.

Both knives come with handy, well made leather pocket sheaths. Once again the quality is high.

The smaller version of Le Trappeur is Le Campagnon,same general design but a slip joint knife with no lock. The springs are very strong and difficult to close, therefore many thanks to the designer for a half-stop for the blade which is only a quarter inch shorter but not as wide as Le Trappeur’s. Le Compact is exactly that, very compact knife almost the clone of Le Compagnon but handily tiny. Here are all three together closed.

And open

And take a look at the fine file work on the back-straps of these knives.

I will give you all the specs later once I measure them for myself and develop new edges for these bad boys as I did for Le Trappeur. BTW the steel is the same excellent Sandvik 12C27. The scales on the Compagnon are Norwegian Birch while Le Compact’s scales are Olive wood.

Cheers
Leo

[Marion]

Very handsome your pockets should be proud to carry such knives.

[wickededge]

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing those.

-Clay

[Leo James Mitchell]

I have to make a correction regarding the steel used in the blades of these Chambriard knives.Rather than Sandvik 12C27 the steel is the better grade 13C26.
…quote,”Sandvik 13C26 is a Swedish stainless steel developed for knife and edge applications where sharpness and edge retention is the main focus. The fantastic sharpness made available with 13C26 is possible because of the very fine microstructure and high level of purity. The high concentration of small carbides enables high wear resistance, edge stability and resistance to micro chipping. Together with 60+ Rockwell hardness, this results in a knife with very good edge retention. A knife made of Sandvik 13C26 is stainless in normal use. It provides extremely tough corrosion resistance.
13C26 was designed as a razor blade steel it sets a high standard for edge stability and is thus an ideal stainless steel for those who desire a high initial sharpness and keep their blades very sharp.”

This explains the fantastic edges I have created on these knives! Wow!

Leo

[Mark76]

It’s an entire family now :-). I love the birch.

I happened to come across this video on another forum:

And this one:

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Leo James Mitchell]

Thank you Mark! Those were the very videos that got me going on these knives in the first plce.Stefan makes some of the most wonderful videos on You Tube. Thanks again for your thoughfulness mate!The one on Le Trappeur just came out today!

Very best regards
Leo

[Author]

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