Laguiole Collectable Knives: Signature & Marquetry

Marquetry knives: chequerboards, stripes and mosaics

Every marquetry knife here begins as a handful of separate pieces of wood or other materials, cut and fitted until the handle reads as one design. The chequerboards set two contrasting materials in alternating squares, the bicolour handles have strips of wood dyed right through and set on the slant, in shades from pink to green with violet glints, and the mosaics go further still. On the Orgue, coloured segments call to mind a row of organ pipes. On the Étincelle, small coloured squares cross long pale and dark strips, and the Woodstock forms a patchwork from woods of many shades. Run a fingertip along any of them and the surface is smooth from end to end.

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Watch the Orgue marquetry knife

See the coloured wood segments of the Orgue marquetry handle up close.

View this marquetry knife

Inlaid fleurs-de-lis and sculpted emblems

Some designs carry their motif in the handle itself. An inlaid knife such as the fleur-de-lis model has the emblem set in pewter against black ebony, flush with the wood. Others have their decoration at the head of the handle instead: a butterfly chiselled in relief, a fleur-de-lis, a bunch of grapes, or the Freemasons' square and compasses on ebony, with chiselled plates on the Prestige models. The Butterfly knives add colour too, in green, coral red, yellow or blue, and on the Cosmos knives the emblem changes with each model, the rings of Saturn being one.

Ebony and stone, and other pieces for a knife collection

The Nox Pretiosa knives bring together dark ebony and polished stone within one handle, with finely chiselled plates, and your fingers pass from the warmth of the wood to the coolness of the stone. Other models play with shape: Crocus and Dodu have a rounder, fuller handle, while the twisted handles are shaped from one solid piece into a tight spiral. For a knife collection, these collectable pocket knives let you set marquetry, inlay, emblems and stone side by side. If you'd rather own a true one-off, see One-of-a-Kind Laguiole Knives.

Collectable knife questions

Look after your knife as the care notes sent with every order explain: hand-wash it, dry it without delay and treat the dishwasher as out of bounds.