Laguiole Cutlery

Wood handle cutlery in pistachio and wenge, or zebu horn tip

Start with the handle: on this wood handle cutlery, the material you pick for the knives can be matched on the forks and spoons. Pistachio has a satin finish, golden yellow shading into pale green. Wenge, satin as well, is a dark brown that looks almost black, with straight veins. Polished zebu horn tip shows streaks of amber and pale blond in a browner horn, translucent in places on some handles. Each of the three is made for steak knives, table forks, soup and dessert spoons, plus the knife and fork sets for one and two.

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Watch the pistachio knife and fork set

Two steak knives and two forks, each with a satin pistachio handle.

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Cutlery in sixes, fours or twos

Rather than one complete service for six, this range lets you buy each kind of piece separately. Steak knives are sold in sixes, fours or twos. Table forks, soup spoons, dessert spoons, dessert knives and cake forks are sold in sixes. That suits a household that eats more steak than soup, or anyone adding pudding cutlery to the knives and forks they already own. It also means the table can grow from two places to six in the same handle throughout.

Where to start with Laguiole knives and forks

The obvious place to start is Laguiole knives and forks, the pieces used at nearly every meal. For two, start with the two-place knife and fork set, and the steak knives in fours or sixes suit a bigger table. Soup spoons, the longer spoon of the two, come next, then dessert spoons for crumble or custard. The dessert knives and cake forks, smaller than the table pieces, are the ones for tarts, sponges and fruit. For the pudding pieces in more detail, read the UK guide to dessert spoons, dessert knives and forks.

Laguiole cutlery questions

A leaflet on looking after the handles is packed with every order. Hand wash, dry with a tea towel at once, and never load wood or horn into the dishwasher, since heat and soaking would dull them.