More than 120 years after its first workshop opened, the Claude Dozorme house still makes its knives near Thiers. A family business that has become a reference in French cutlery, awarded the Living Heritage Company label.
Four generations of cutlers
It all began in 1902, when Blaise Dozorme, nicknamed “the Wolf”, set up a small workshop in his house in La Monnerie, a few kilometres from Thiers. He mostly worked as a subcontractor for the town’s large houses. His son Valentin took over in 1918 and ran it for almost half a century.
In 1965, Claude Dozorme, Valentin’s son, took the reins with his wife Éliane. He invested in tooling and began making knives under his own name, first sold at trade fairs. The Claude Dozorme brand was born in the 1980s with a landmark creation: the first fixed-blade Laguiole table knife, turning a legendary folding knife into a dining knife. Claude was named Master Artisan Cutler.
- 1902 · Blaise Dozorme opens his workshop in La Monnerie.
- 1918 · His son Valentin takes over.
- 1965 · Claude and Éliane Dozorme take over and make knives under their own name.
- 1967 · First CNC grinding centre.
- 1980s · The brand is born, with the fixed-blade Laguiole table knife.
- 1991 · Claude’s daughter Claudine joins the company.
- 1993 · New 700 m² factory with workshops, offices and showroom.
- 1995 · First laser cutting machine for blades in Thiers.
- 1998 · Exports begin, reaching five continents.
- 2001 · Claudine becomes managing director.
- 2009 · Living Heritage Company label.
- 2022 · Didier Perret, an Arts et Métiers engineer, takes over the manufacture.
The manufacture today
The Palladuc workshops, in the heart of the Thiers area, employ more than 25 people with an average of fifteen years’ service. Every year the house trains apprentices from the Thiers training centre. Production is fully integrated: from cutting the steel to the final check, everything is done on site, with most suppliers less than 50 km away.
A knife takes some forty steps. The core gestures have not changed in over a century; the tools have moved with the times, from laser cutting to CNC grinding.
- The steel, sourced from European steelmakers.
- The blade, computer-designed, laser-cut, then hardened.
- Hardness testing, then grinding to give the blade its bevel.
- Polishing, assembly and shaping of the handle.
- Sharpening for the edge, then laser marking.
- Inspection of every blade and handle before packing.
Chosen materials
Handles are the house’s signature: olive, juniper or rosewood, horn, mother-of-pearl, shagreen, leather, even mammoth molar. Some models feature inlays of crystals, real feathers or fishing flies. For worry-free daily use, the house also works high-end synthetics such as acrylic and Cristallium, in a wide range of colours.
Four worlds
- Table: Le Thiers® in all its forms (Classic, Art Deco, Double Plates, Shagreen, L’Âme, Shadow), Laguiole, Capucin, Navette, London, Beaumarly and the colourful Berlingot.
- Kitchen: the 1902, Légende, Haute Cuisine, Flatcut and Everyday Kitchen ranges, plus cheese and bread knives and carving sets.
- Outdoor: pocket knives (Baroudeur, Laguiole, mechanism Le Thiers®, Liner), adventure knives (EOK, Yulara, Summer Camp) and hunting knives.
- Wine: Clos Laguiole and Le Thiers® Exception sommelier knives, champagne sabres.
Landmark creations
Claude Dozorme was the first maker to adapt the Laguiole to the table with a fixed blade. The house created two models in Thiers that became classics, the Berlingot and the Liner-Lock, and pioneered mechanism Le Thiers® knives: Verrou, Secret, and RLT with its ball bearing. It regularly works with designers such as Thomas Bastide, designer for Baccarat, who created Le Thiers® Shadow and L’Âme.
With around 2,000 references and over 1,000 pieces made every day, Claude Dozorme is sold in the great Paris department stores (Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche, Printemps Haussmann, Galeries Lafayette Haussmann) and by cutlers worldwide.
Commitments
- Living Heritage Company since 2009, Master Artisan Cutler, Art Workshop, Made in France
- All steel offcuts recycled, recyclable packaging
- Part of the packaging made with a sheltered-employment workshop
- Apprentices trained every year; member of the Le Thiers Knife Brotherhood