Tichet 13″ Chef Carbon Steel Rosewood Paris, France 1890-1930

Massive Tichet 13″ chef knife, in a very old Paris/Nogent style with a very thick spine and heel and a rapid taper with a very thin semi flexible tip. Tall and wide at the heel with a large handle with a wide nickel ferrule with a brazed seam and a heavy rosewood handle. Capable of chopping lamb bones in the heel and slicing garlic at the tip this knife is a true multitasker and in that epitomizes the virtues of the Western chef knife. These come around so seldom and are a true piece of culinary knife history from a truly formative time in restaurant history. 

Tichet was originally a small knife makers in Paris doing all process by hand from forging to grinding in a small shop. In the 1880s they moved most or all production to Nogent where there had also been a tradition of hand worked knives like in many areas of France with small pre-industrial shops. With the adaptation of the drop forge first in Nogent the volume of knives that could be made was greatly increased however skilled hand work hand forging and hand grinding after drop forging was the norm. Before long Thiers followed suite and adopted the drop forge to increase output. 

Tichet knives made in Nogent from this era: 1880s to early 20th century were some of the best of their day and have a very, very distinctive blade and handle geometry and feel as well as the distinctive Lion stamp. The forging, heat treatment and grinding of Tichet knives in this era are really excellent, much less of them show up than other makers and I doubt they were exported but they are definitely worth noting as the being part of the top of the heap of old French knife making as it transferred from all hand work to more mechanized process. After this era of Tichet made in Nogent knives were more similar to the ones being made in Thiers and were made up to the 1960s when Nogent began to decline. 

This knife was sharpened down a little, originally a hair wider its edge had become a tiny bit thick. It has been ground on a large water cooled wheel and thinned along the faces by us to bringing it back to a good geometry, the hot stamps are nice and deep so not much was lost, but they were a bit worn when the stamped the knife, it would have originally read: “Tichet 16 Rue St Saveur Paris Preclar. Montmartre”.

13″ blade, 18.75″ overall 18.4oz