Thiers-Issard: Knife and Razor Makers in Thiers since 1884

Coutellerie in Thiers since 1884

Thiers-Issard is a family-run knife and razor maker in Thiers, the knife capital of France. It started as a small razor forge in 1884 and is today the maker of Sabatier ★★★★ Elephant kitchen knives, of traditional straight razors sold all over the world, and of a range of French pocket knives made by hand in its own workshops.

1884
Founded in Thiers by blacksmith Pierre Thiers
1958
The Sabatier ★★★★ mark enters the Thiers family
~20,000
Straight razors made each year
EPV
Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant, the French state label for heritage craft firms

A razor forge at Pont Haut

The firm was founded in 1884 by Pierre Thiers, a blacksmith who set up a razor works at Pont Haut on the Durolle, the river that powered the town's workshops. Thiers is both a town and a common surname there, and several cutlery firms already traded as "Thiers". To stand apart, Pierre added his wife's family name, Issard, to his own. Razors were the core of the business for its first half century, and the firm also sold them to other Thiers houses, including Sabatier Jeune.

Old postcard of the Pont Saint-Jean over the Durolle in Thiers with a paper mill and workshops, around 1900
The Durolle at the Pont Saint-Jean, with an old paper mill, around 1900. Workshops like these lined the river when Pierre Thiers set up his razor forge. Photographer unknown, postcard. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

When the founder died in 1929, his widow Marguerite kept the works going with their son, also called Pierre. The family kept control for four generations; by the 1950s the firm was run by Louis Thiers, while his brother Pierre ran a separate company, Eterna.

How the Sabatier ★★★★ mark came to Thiers-Issard

The story of the mark begins well before the Thiers family owned it, and it is documented step by step in the 2023 reference book on Sabatier makers:

1906
Gabriel Sabatier, a blacksmith and cutler from Chabreloche who had used his own marks for years, registers five Sabatier marks including Sabatier ★★★★. Within weeks he sells them to Patural Duprat et Cie, a knife factory at Puy-Cervier near La Monnerie.
1918
Mathieu Feuillet of Patural Duprat renews the four-star mark.
1958
Jean Faye, who has taken over the Puy-Cervier works, renews the mark in March and on 26 April sells it for 30,000 francs to Eterna, a company run by industrialist Pierre Thiers.
1972
Eterna is wound up and its assets, Sabatier ★★★★ included, are merged into Thiers-Issard. The firm renews the mark in 1973 and again in 1983.
1994
The mark is filed in Switzerland as the basis for its international extension.
2003
At the next renewal Gilles Reynewaeter adds the word Éléphant to the registered mark.

Why Eterna?

Two explanations circulate for why Pierre Thiers set up a separate company in 1947. One says he had fallen out with his brother Louis, who ran Thiers-Issard. The other, which Pierre Thiers himself told Gilles Reynewaeter, is that Thiers-Issard had signed a contract giving an American agent, Kasuel, the exclusive right to all its US orders. When a very large order for razors and kitchen knives arrived from another source, the family opened a workshop at Boën-sur-Lignon and filled it under the Eterna name. Either way, the brothers were reconciled and Eterna was folded back into Thiers-Issard in 1972.

The four stars allowed the razor maker to branch out into professional kitchen knives. In the decades that followed, Elephant-marked Sabatier knives became well known, particularly in the United States, where they were sold through importers. From 1988 Thiers-Issard also manufactured the V Sabatier range for the English firm Richardson Sheffield.

Gilles Reynewaeter and the modern firm

After financial difficulties in the early 1980s, the Thiers family sold the business in 1985 to Gilles Reynewaeter. Born in 1950 at Chantelauze, in La Monnerie-le-Montel, to parents who were both cutlers, he grew up on the rue de la Rouillère surrounded by forges and oil-hardening shops. He still remembers the power hammers that rang out from 5 a.m. on Monday until Saturday evening, all the way from Noirétable to Lezoux.

Under his direction Thiers-Issard took over several neighboring workshops between 1992 and 2007, including the cutler Georges Goutte, the edge-tool maker Pigeat and the Laguiole specialist Périard-Dassaud, and invested in new razor forging dies around 2010. His daughter Sandra Keller-Reynewaeter became managing director in 2012. Gilles Reynewaeter was also the driving force behind the 2023 book on the Sabatier makers, which drew on his knowledge of the trade and its marks.

"Knives made entirely in France are in demand again. But buyers are more and more knowledgeable, and every one of our Sabatier knives is examined with a magnifying glass. Today they buy quality and novelty, so we have to make our knives with handles our competitors don't have."
Gilles Reynewaeter, quoted in the 2023 book (our translation)

What Thiers-Issard makes

Sabatier ★★★★ Elephant kitchen knives

Fully forged kitchen knives in stainless or carbon steel, made in about 27 steps in the Thiers workshop and sharpened by hand. Most of the production is exported: according to the 2023 book, 94% of it goes to some 65 countries. Read more in our guide to Sabatier Elephant knives.

Straight razors

Razors are where the firm began, and by 2012 they made up more than 60% of the factory's output. Thiers-Issard forges around 20,000 straight razors a year, which places it among the largest makers in the world. Its best-known model is Le Grelot.

Pocket knives

A large range of folding knives, from regional French classics to the firm's own designs. Many carry the initials G.R. on the ricasso. Blades are mostly Sandvik 12C27 stainless steel, handles come in dozens of woods and horns, and decorative filework on the spring is done by hand. These are the models we carry:

Le Thiers 9 cm, full handle
The town's own knife in a compact everyday size.
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Le Thiers 11 cm, full handle
The classic size, from olive wood to checkerboard editions.
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Le Thiers, forged
Forged bolster and the caravel of the Thiers arms on the spring.
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Le Thiers Sésame
Knife and corkscrew with a cam-operated lock.
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Thiern
A clean full-handle design by Thiers-Issard.
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Gabardier
Shaped like the flat-bottomed boats of the Dordogne.
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Yatagan basque
A regional classic from around 1800 with a curved blade.
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Pradel
A model from the 1860s, made in its period style.
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Galeam
New knives built on carbon blades forged in the 1930s.
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In the workshop

Kitchen knife blades start as a steel blank about a centimeter thick that is hot-forged so that blade, bolster and tang come out as a single piece. After trimming they are hardened in a salt bath, at around 1,000 °C for stainless steel and around 800 °C for carbon steel, then tempered. The blade is marked by electro-etching and then ground and sharpened on the wheel, felt and cotton buffs. Pocket knife blades in 12C27 are cut and formed cold, then ground, assembled and finished by hand.

The firm holds the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant label, awarded by the French state to companies with rare, high-level craft skills.

Frequently asked questions

Is Thiers-Issard the same company as Sabatier?
Thiers-Issard is an independent family firm in Thiers. It owns one of the historic Sabatier marks, Sabatier ★★★★, and makes its kitchen knives under the name Sabatier ★★★★ Elephant. Other Thiers firms own other Sabatier marks.
Where are Thiers-Issard knives made?
In the company's workshops in the Felet industrial area of Thiers, Puy-de-Dôme, France. Kitchen knives are forged, ground and hand-sharpened there.
Who owns Thiers-Issard?
The Thiers family ran the firm from 1884 until 1985, when it was taken over by Gilles Reynewaeter, a Thiers native from a family of cutlers. It remains a family business, with his daughter Sandra Keller-Reynewaeter as managing director.
What does the G.R. mark on a Thiers-Issard pocket knife mean?
G.R. stands for Gilles Reynewaeter. It is struck on the ricasso of many of the firm's folding knives, such as Le Thiers, the Pradel and the Yatagan basque.
Does Thiers-Issard still make straight razors?
Yes. Razors were the firm's original trade and remain a large part of its output. It makes around 20,000 straight razors a year, which places it among the largest makers in the world.

Sources: Sabatier: les fabricants et leurs marques, au cœur de l'histoire de la coutellerie thiernoise by Sylvie Vissà and Jean-François Faye, with Gilles Reynewaeter (Les Amis des Bois Noirs, 2023); Thiers-Issard (thiers-issard.fr); French company register (SIREN 334 281 649); Thiers-Issard catalogues 2023 and 2026.