Claude Dozorme a knife manufacturer from Thiers

The town of Thiers

Thiers, the metropolis and the place of origin of French kitchen knife manufacture.

Our trip to Thiers was aimed at to rummage through the best chef’s knife manufacturers in France. Similar to the city of Solingen in Germany, Thiers is the gathering place of the French cutlery industry.

Of course, in preparation for the trip, we had researched exactly who was suitable for TYPEMYKNIFE®. Only those who want high-quality, attractive and innovative knife series produced was shortlisted.

With great excitement we visited the promising knife manufacturer Claude Dozorme

History

Anyone who was not a baker or butcher in the French knife-city Thiers in the last century was very likely to be working in one of the many knife manufacturers that lined up along the Durolle river like pearls on a necklace.

So did Blaise Dozorme, who founded the family business. He was one of the many steel workers in one of the many cutlers in the Thiers Basin. But Blaise Dozorme wanted more.

He had sufficient experience and expertise in his craft to dare the step into self-employment. In their own small house in La Monnerie, a suburb of Thiers, space was made for a small knife workshop.

His good contacts coupled with his reputation for reliability and perfection in his work quickly brought him customers from the surrounding knife manufacturers.

He started his business doing commissions and contract work for other companies. But Blaise Dozorme wanted to go one step further. He wanted to develop and manufacture his own knives.

He was highly valued for his entrepreneurial spirit, but also for his goal-oriented yet easy-going personality. His colleagues soon gave him the nickname le Loup, the wolf.

The Wolf of Dozorme

This is how the wolf’s head became the logo of the Dozorme family that is still used today. It is emblazoned on every blade and conveys significant history, tradition and standards of the Dozorme knife series.

Blaise Dozorme’s son Valentin took over the company in 1934. He too was a maker and developer like his father. He improved and streamlined knife making, introduced new techniques and expanded the range of his own knives and cutlery. The company grew and gained a good reputation in the knife industry.

Claude

Claude, Valentin’s son, succeeded him as the knife manufacturer to further success. In the 1970s the family business expanded in Thiers. Production has been improved.

Investments were made in tools and machines. He relies on more mechanization and structuring in the company, without losing sight of the manual work necessary for good knives. He developed a whole new series of knives under attractive names.

The presentation of the products at international trade fairs was a further step on the way to the global company Claude Dozorme.

Laguiole

In the eighties, the first fixed Laguiole knife was presented under the brand name Claude Dozorme. A coup, a pioneering act. As a result, the famous pocket knife became a table knife and also won a permanent place at the set table there. For this innovation, Dozorme was awarded the title “Maître Artisan Coutelier” awarded,

Claudine

At first it didn’t look as if Claudine, Claude’s daughter, wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps.

After graduating from high school, she studied at the renowned business school Ecole Supérieure de Gestion in Paris. She then works as a sales manager at Kraft General Foods Agro-Food-Group.

In 1991 her father asked her to come to Thiers to help them develop their brand image. She stayed. To this day, Claudine heads the company’s sales and marketing department.

The team has consistently developed their brand and the wonderful products since the eighties. New manufacturing processes have been introduced.

Measuring and knife cutting is supported digitally today. Laser cutting makes it possible to cut special steels into very precise blade shapes. But the most important thing is and remains the manual work.

Haute Cuisine

TYPEMYKNIFE® has the three most beautiful kitchen knife series by Claude Dozorme in his shop. All knives can be designed in the 3D configurator and engraved with a laser.

Haute Cuisine Exotic

This knife series includes wonderfully curved knives with a handle made of exotic hardwood. The wood is compact and waterproof. The blade is laser-cut in one piece from special steel.

The X50CrMoV15 blade steel is hardened to 54-56 HRC. The handle is made of both stainless steel and wood. The two stainless steel shells are seamlessly welded to the continuous knife blade.

The exotic hardwood is inserted into the shells and connected with three steel rivets. Wood and steel are softly rounded to ensure a good and lasting hold when using the knife.

Haute Cuisine Acryl Noir

The Haut Cuisine knife series combines elegance, cutting precision and the durability of the blade. In contrast to the Exotique series, the handles of the Acryl Noir series are made of acrylic.

The design in black plastic, steel and the rivets make the knife a modern classic. The same blade steel is also used here, an X50CrMoV15 stainless steel with a hardness of 54-56 HRC.

The blade and lower scales are made of stainless steel and are seamlessly welded. The acrylic grip surfaces are connected to the continuous tang with three stainless steel rivets. Acrylic also PMMA, is a polymer, a long-chain plastic.

It is actually highly transparent, but can be dyed perfectly black. Acrylic is unbreakable and very heat-resistant, making it ideal as a handle material even in tough everyday kitchen work.

A fantastic symbiosis of form and material has been achieved with the Acryl Noir series.

FlatCut

Like all models in Claude Dozorme’s kitchen knife series, an X50CrMoV15 blade steel was used for the FlatCut series. Through several hardening processes, the stainless steel achieves a hardness of 54 to 56 HRC. The result is high precision in the cut and long durability of the blade.

A real innovation, a whole new way in the handle design of kitchen knives.

The design of the handle is completely new on this knife. It is only plastically raised on the right side of the knife. The left side of the knife is flat throughout. Hence the catchy name Flatcut.

The well-known French product designer Thomas Bastide played a key role in the design of this unique knife.

He has brought his many years of experience from the glass industry to Baccarat. This is how a chef’s knife with high functionality and typical French design language came about.

The choice of Bakelite as the handle material is also unusual. Bakelite is a phenoplast, an early plastic that has prevailed to this day due to its good properties.

It has excellent thermal properties and is extremely dimensionally stable and durable. The exceptionally only black grip is firmly glued to the continuous blade on the right side of the knife.

Two stainless steel pan-head screws hold the handle inseparably on the solid blade steel. It is surprising how perfectly this asymmetrical knife geometry lies in the hand. Hand and handle result in an ideal form fit. The knife sits firmly and securely in your hand.

Flatcut dares to make a big leap forward in terms of function and design. The result is absolutely convincing and a real eye-catcher.

TYPEMYKNIFE® 2022