Folding knives | Pradel 11cm

Thiers-Issard · Regional knife

A pocket knife pattern from the 1860s, made again in its period style: the Pradel has an 11 cm 12C27 blade, a nickel silver bolster and a hand-filed spring.

1860s
A Pradel family pattern from Thiers
11 cm
12C27 stainless blade
Nickel silver
Bolster
Hand filework
On the stainless spring

A Thiers name from the 1860s

The Pradels were a family of cutlers from the hamlet of Pradel, near Celles-sur-Durolle in the Thiers valley, working in the trade for some twelve generations. In the 1860s, when the town's factories were adopting steam power and Thiers made most of France's pocket knives, Étienne Pradel gave the family its best-known knife. According to the local history society he developed it from an English model, with a square tang, a stop on the spring and a concave bolster that makes it easy to recognize. In 1862 he also bought the anchor trademark L'ancre des mers, which became the family emblem.

The knife sold in huge numbers: before 1914 the firm made around 18,000 a month, and in the west of France, first Normandy and then Brittany, it became the knife of sailors and farmers. The name grew so familiar that "a Pradel" came to mean a type of knife, the way Opinel did, and other Thiers firms used it as a trademark well into the twentieth century. Thiers-Issard's version is a modern knife that keeps the look of that period.

Build and materials

A single blade (1 pièce) with one nickel silver bolster and a stainless spring decorated by hand. The blade is Sandvik 12C27, a fine-grained Swedish stainless steel that is a favorite for pocket knives: it takes a keen edge, is easy to resharpen and resists rust well. Thiers-Issard offers it in horn, olive wood and exotic woods.

The French pocket knife

In the early nineteenth century most people in France ate with their own folding knife. Women carried one in their pocket, often with a second silver blade for fruit; men's knives had a pruning blade and a corkscrew. Around 1850 the habit faded and the table knife took over at meals, but the pocket knife stayed with farmers, hunters, gardeners and anyone who worked outdoors.

Thiers was its capital. At the Paris exhibition of 1867 the town and its valley made 60 percent of all French cutlery, above all folding knives, and as late as 1960 pocket knives were still the largest single part of its output. Handles were made of horn, bone, buffalo horn and ebony shipped from Africa and the islands; before the Second World War Thiers imported around a thousand tonnes of buffalo horn a year, partly to cut into scales for pocket knives.

More pocket knives from Thiers-Issard

All our folding knives are made by hand by Thiers-Issard in Thiers. Explore the others: Le Thiers 9 cm · Le Thiers 11 cm · Le Thiers, forged · Le Thiers Sésame · Thiern · Gabardier · Yatagan basque · Galeam.

Frequently asked questions

Who designed the Pradel?
The Pradel comes from the Pradel family of cutlers, from the hamlet of Pradel near Celles-sur-Durolle, in the Thiers valley. Thiers-Issard credits the pattern to Étienne Pradel of the Pradel-Chomette firm in the 1860s; its own version is a modern knife made in the style of that period.
Why is it famous in western France?
In the early twentieth century the Pradel was the everyday knife of sailors and farmers in Normandy and Brittany: slim enough to carry in any pocket and simple to use. Its name became so common that, like Opinel, it came to stand for a whole type of knife.
What is the bolster made of?
Nickel silver, a hard, silvery copper-nickel-zinc alloy traditionally used on French pocket knives.
Is the filework done by hand?
Yes, the decoration on the stainless spring is filed by hand.