Capucin Knife with Full Abalone Handle – Chiseled Spring

525€

There will never be another Capucin like this one. Laguiole en Aubrac cutlers of the highest caliber made it by hand, every step of the way. Its 3.9″ (10 cm) full handle is clad in abalone, the most iridescent shell the ocean produces: swirls of lagoon blue, green and mauve wind across it, ringed by the dark lines the shell draws on its own, and the two sides of the handle show two different seascapes. A thin coat of clear acrylic protects this precious material and still lets the light sink into its depths, the way sunlight plays below the surface of the sea.

Its silhouette is what makes a Capucin. The handle is slim, without a bolster, and narrows to a point at the heel; seen from the side, that tip outlines the face of a monk tucked inside a deep hood, and it gave the knife its name centuries ago. People recognize a Laguiole by its bee and a Capucin by that point, a signature of pure shape that experienced eyes spot right away, even before the blade is open.

A fine chiseled decoration runs along the spring of this piece: crescents and volutes repeating in even segments from end to end, set between two dark lines that separate them from the shell. The pattern is discreet and only shows when the knife is turned over. It was worked with a file, with the kind of patience that rewards an attentive eye, true to a model that has always chosen subtlety over show. When opened, the blade of 12C27 stainless steel settles into a forced notch that keeps it firmly open, for safe, confident use day after day.

This Capucin is for anyone who loves old knife designs revisited and rare materials. It sets the most iridescent of shells on one of the oldest knife profiles in France, with a chiseled spring, a forced notch and a build carried out entirely by hand. Unique in the world, light and slim, it slides into a pocket, and every time it comes back out, someone wants to know more about it.

capucin knife with full abalone handle – chiseled spring

SKU: LEA PU - CAPUCIN ABALONE Category: One-of-a-Kind Laguiole Knives Category: One-of-a-Kind Laguiole Knives

A folding knife among the oldest in France, the Capucin owes its name to its silhouette: the tip of its handle draws the face of a monk beneath his great hood. Companion of shepherds and peasants, it lives again here in an interpretation of pure finesse.

Full Abalone Capucin Knife by Laguiole en Aubrac

Abalone, the most spectacular of shells, clothes one of France's oldest knife profiles on this Capucin. Its lagoon-blue, green and mauve waves, edged in dark, sit under a thin coat of clear acrylic that protects without dulling the shine.

True to the model, the tapered handle ends at the heel in a hood-shaped point, the spring is finely chiseled with crescents and volutes, and the blade, in 12C27 stainless steel, comes to rest on a forced notch that keeps it steady in use: old-knife finesse with present-day reassurance.

3.9" (10 cm) Full Abalone Handle, protected by transparent acrylic.
Exclusive model: this knife is one of a kind and will never be reproduced.
Stainless 12C27 steel blade. Forced notch.
Finely chiseled spring.
Handmade from start to finish by a single artisan cutler.
Cotton pouch and numbered certificate of authenticity included.
Lifetime warranty against any manufacturing defect.

Plateau meets ocean in this Capucin: the hooded monk's profile, centuries old, now wears an abalone whose waves will break on this knife and no other.

Lagoon blue, sea green and mauve swirl across the abalone, ringed with dark lines and shifting at every tilt beneath the clear acrylic. Along the spring, crescents and volutes repeat in even segments between two slender dark lines. The handle narrows to a hooded point at the heel, the monk's profile that gave this old folding knife its name.

Description

The Capucin has traveled a long road. This folding knife ranks among the oldest in France: well before today’s famous names existed, its fine blade and tapering handle rode in the pockets and on the belts of shepherds and farm workers, back when people kept the same knife their whole lives. The name comes from the shape. Hold the handle in profile, look at its tip, and the face of a monk takes form under the generous hood of his habit. The design is so simple and so right that the centuries have left no mark on it.

This particular Capucin, an old friend of the high plateaus, has put on a coat of ocean. Its abalone comes from a shellfish of cold seas at the far ends of the earth, and no nacre is more spectacular: lagoon blues, kelp greens and mauves roll across it in dark-rimmed waves, changing with the slightest tilt the way water changes under a passing wind. Every shell is different, and no other knife will ever carry these waves.

What results is a study in contrast. The most down-to-earth of knife profiles, born for shepherds’ pockets, is wrapped in the most oceanic of materials, and a design centuries old rests on a living nacre whose color shifts with the hour and with every move of the hand. Between the two, the chiseled spring and the forced notch are a reminder that the Capucin is still what it has always been, a fine, dependable and faithful tool. Plateau and ocean meet here inside 3.9 inches of nacre, in a piece unique in the world, to be carried the way you would carry a secret.

Abalone

Abalone is the nacre of a shellfish from cold seas, and no other nacre comes close to it. Its palette runs from lagoon blue to deep green, with mauve and flashes of pink, swirling in waves ringed by the natural dark lines of the shell, forming patterns the light redraws at every tilt. Instrument makers, marquetry artisans and jewelers have prized it for centuries for their finest pieces, and each shell holds a landscape no other will repeat.

Because it is precious and delicate by nature, the abalone here is plated onto the handle and then sealed under a thin coat of clear acrylic. The nacre keeps its full brilliance, light still reaches deep into it, and the surface gains the toughness a pocket knife needs.

With this Capucin, a fragment of ocean goes into your pocket, mounted on centuries of knifemaking history. It is a one-of-a-kind piece whose colors move with every tilt and never repeat themselves.

Capucin Knife with Full Abalone Handle – Chiseled Spring

Full Abalone Capucin Knife by Laguiole en Aubrac

Abalone

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