Premium Vintage Sabatier Chef Au Ritz Chef 25cm Knife Birdseye Redgum Timber Fully Restored Made in France 🇫🇷 Carbon Steel

Our Premium vintage collection, brought to you by the partnership between Chef & a Knife and HG Blades.

If you take cooking seriously, if you're ready to invest a little bit of time and a lot more care then this premium vintage carbon steel knife is for you.

The blade is fully forged from high quality of French steel. This blade has been treated for rust, cleaned and professionally sharpened. The steel gives superior edge retention, strength, and wear resistance.

The handles are made from Birdseye Redgum Timber with Stainless Stell pins and this specific piece of timber has a rare grain type (the lines show the stages and age of the tree). They are attached to the full tang blade with a set of beautiful and solid brass tube pins. 

The new handle has been fitted and lovingly shaped by Hayden from HG Blades in Victoria. Hayden has a passion for producing his own knives so you can be assured that the work is of the highest quality.

SPECIFICATION:
Overall Length: 380mm
Blade Length: 250mm
Blade Thickness: 1.4 mm
Style: Fully Forged, Full Tang, Triple Stainle Pins 
Steel: High Carbon Steel
Hardness: 85 HRC
Handle Material:Birdseye Redgum Timber and stainless pins

Weight: Approx 0.5kg

Made in: France 🇫🇷 But restored in Australia 🇦🇺  

History:

We have to go back to the beginning of the XIXth century to find a certain Philippe SABATIER who manufactured, in Bellevue (in the suburbs of Thiers) at n ° 57 of the Route de Lyon, knives intended for meat professionals.

The success encountered was such that it was necessary to distinguish them from the competition by affixing a brand: it was a "K", which was already used before the French Revolution, but which was bought by our man in 1810.

So Sabatier was born: the blade, of variable length, was naturally made of forged carbon steel and the handle was mounted on silk after having been previously filled with cement, the rear part being closed by a rosette.

His son, Bonnet SABATIER, succeeded him, still using the same brand. An act, which dates from December 9, 1858, relates the renewal of the deposit thereof.

Bonnet had two sons: Gabriel and Pierre, who, after having worked with their father, started out on June 6, 1882, to create a SABATIER FRERES company. Gabriel, who bought all the rights on the brands, continued to manufacture this same type of knife under the name of SABATIER AINE, under the brand K SABATIER.

At this stage of the story, the question of the success of this knife, not only in France but worldwide, and this, from the first models forged by Philippe, arises.

The answer lies in the quality and balance of the whole, the grip is much more pleasant compared to what already existed, in the range of sizes offered.

The sale was first of all local, on the occasion of agricultural fairs, but the professionals of the butchery and the kitchen being geographically very mobile, their colleagues of meeting, seduced by this new tool which did not leave them, they are moved to Thiers in order to equip themselves in the same way.

Resellers across the country, having heard of the good deal, also came to get supplies, which explains the success at the national level.

The reaction was the same when these butchers and cooks went to practice their art outside the country.

The family archives of this period show a very great export activity in all Europe, but also in the United States, in North Africa, in Asia and in Africa, these last regions being probably explained by a strong presence French, in the distant times of the colonies ...

Undoubtedly Bonnet SABATIER has demonstrated both indisputable qualities in cutlery, but also in trade, and it is undoubtedly to him that the brand owes its reputation and its development. his sons, just like their successors in the business, only had to maintain quality and commercial relations, even if that did not always have to be easy ...

Antoinette, Gabriel's daughter, took over the business, first with her husband, Annet Perrier, and then alone when he died.

His successors were his son Adrien Perrier, then Marie-Antoinette, daughter of the latter, who married Roger BOURGADE.

We reach, after this long journey, the daughter of this couple: Agnes, wife BOURNILHAS. She ran the company with her husband, Alain BOURNILHAS, who was responsible for manufacturing.

Currently, Philippe BOURNILHAS, son of Agnès and Alain BOURNILHAS, manages the SABATIER AINE & PERRIER business.

As at the origin, the company still has its headquarters at n ° 57 Bellevue in THIERS.

Of course, the materials, as well as the manufacturing methods have changed, but the quality is still there, and the demand is still just as important: more than one hundred thousand pieces per year, of which 70% for export.

The steel, still forged, is 4116 stainless. The range is huge and meets all needs, both butchers and cooks, and even, naturally, that housewives, although they are by definition professional knives.