Poplar of the Two Banks: Laguiole Knife in Poplar Crotch – Damascus Blade – Deeply Engraved Bee

595€

There is only one “Poplar of the Two Banks,” and one of Laguiole en Aubrac’s finest cutlers worked every stage of it by hand. Its scales come from a poplar crotch, the place where the trunk splits into two limbs, and they glow like sand on a riverbank: a warm blond in which the grain rolls in satiny waves, a shimmer that only a fork in the tree can produce. Tilt the knife and the light travels with it, brightening one wave as it dims the next. At each end, a satin stainless steel bolster holds the wood in place, much as two stone quays keep a river on its course.

This bee has moved into the knife. Engraved deep into the bolster, she stands out in relief against a blackened ground that hollows the steel behind her, tucked into her metal alcove the way wild bees nest in the cavities of old poplars. The effect hits you at first sight: ridged wings, a ringed body, and a presence set right into the thickness of the knife, shaped by light and shadow alone. She waits to be found, and once you have found her, your eye keeps going back.

From there, the spring takes up the current. Its whole length carries a frieze of facing crescents that stand out pale on a blackened field, steel waves crossing and replying to one another, the knife’s own running water, cut patiently with a file and set between two polished liners. The motif never pauses on its way from bolster to bolster, and the black lying in each hollow is what gives it depth. The effect also sets the spring, the backbone of the knife, in motion, so that the whole piece flows toward the blade.

For collectors who like a piece where everything flows from one source, “Poplar of the Two Banks” brings together a crotch-figured wood whose shimmer is seldom seen, a Damascus blade with a pattern of its own, a bee engraved deep into her steel alcove, and a chiseled current running the length of the spring to tie it all together. A whole riverside to hold in one hand, the work of one craftsman from the first cut to the last, and never to exist twice.

Protect your Damascus blade

A Damascus blade is an exceptional, hand-forged piece. A fitted case protects it from knocks, moisture and scratches, and preserves its beauty over the years.

Wrapping and message card

Classic

Free

Gift

+5€

Gift + card

+5€

Gift + handwritten card

+7€

Sheath & box

Cotton pouch

Included

Black sheath

9€

Laguiole en Aubrac Knife in Poplar Crotch with a Damascus Blade

"Poplar of the Two Banks" builds a riverside landscape. Two scales of poplar crotch with a satin shimmer, taken from the fork of the trunk, frame the knife's river: a spring chiseled with facing crescents on a blackened ground, from bolster to bolster.

The blade is Damascus, its dark swirls running through the full thickness of the steel. In the bolster, the bee is engraved deep and stands out from a blackened hollow, with ridged wings and a ringed body.

4.7" (12 cm) handle in poplar crotch. 2 satin stainless steel bolsters.
Exclusive model: one of a kind, never to be reproduced.
3.9" (10 cm) Damascus steel blade, pattern running through its full thickness.
Bee deeply engraved on a blackened ground, spring chiseled with crescents.
Made entirely by hand by a single cutler.
Cotton pouch and numbered certificate of authenticity included.
14-page guide to the craftsmanship charter of the authentic Laguiole included.
Lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects.

Twin banks of blond satin, a river of chiseled steel, a blade like deep water, and a bee guarding the ford: "Poplar of the Two Banks" puts a riverside in your hand. This crotch, this Damascus pattern, and this bee exist on one knife only. If the river calls to you, now is the moment to bring it home.

The Damascus blade unrolls dark swirls, a pattern that goes right through the steel from face to face and belongs to this piece alone. Set deep into the bolster, the bee stands out in relief from a blackened ground, a striking play of depth rarely seen on a Laguiole. Between the satin-blond poplar scales, the spring carries its frieze of facing crescents from one end to the other.

poplar of the two banks: laguiole knife in poplar crotch – damascus blade – deeply engraved bee

Description

A poplar always grows near water. This one went a step further. At about a man’s height it opened into two limbs, and each set off after its own share of light. That fork is where crotch wood comes from: the fibers separate, pull against each other, and weave together, and the grain crumples into ripples that a straight poplar trunk never forms. Two banks inside one trunk. The cutler split this fork and shaped the two scales of the handle from it, twin banks of blond satin, alike but not identical, each one holding on to the memory of the limb it came from.

Two banks call for a river. This one flows through the center of the knife, along the spring, where chiseled crescents meet in pale waves over a darkened bed, a steel current running bolster to bolster. A second river runs in the blade, where the Damascus winds its dark twists, deep water folded back on itself again and again at the forge. That pattern goes through the full thickness of the steel and comes back after every sharpening. No other blade will carry these eddies, because this river has only one bed.

Up on the bank, a lookout. The bee has dug her own place into the bolster, deep against a shadowed ground, a steel niche like the ones poplars offer wild swarms in the hollows of their forks. From there she surveys it all, the twin banks of blond wood, the chiseled current, the dark Damascus water, and every glance ends up back with her, a sentinel recessed into a piece otherwise worked in relief. An entire stretch of riverbank fits into the 4.7 inches of “Poplar of the Two Banks”: a tree that splits in two, water moving past, a bee who stays put. The breeze is the only thing left out, and your hand brings it in whenever you turn the knife toward the light.

Poplar Crotch

A crotch is the most contested spot on a tree, the point where the trunk decides to become two. Its fibers part, push against each other, and twist together, and out of that tangle comes wood a straight poplar could never yield: a creamy blond crossed by satiny ripples that climb and dip with the grain and catch fire again each time the light shifts. A tree offers one crotch, two at most, so this is a wood people come across rather than harvest.

Soft and warm in the hand, poplar crotch is light enough to be a pleasure in the pocket every day. It takes on a patina over the years without losing its ripples, since they live in the grain itself. Born twins from one trunk, these two banks were cut for a single knife, the one you see here.

Damascus

Think of a Damascus blade as a river held still. Steels of differing composition are stacked, forge-welded into a single bar, then stretched and folded, over and over, until their alternating bands form the dark swirls that move across the surface in steady eddies. Because the pattern is part of the steel, crossing the blade from one face to the other, each sharpening brings it back for the whole life of the blade.

No two stacks of layers ever fold the same way, which leaves every Damascus without a sibling or a copy, and these eddies will flow on this knife alone.

To choose "Poplar of the Two Banks" is to stop a whole river at its best moment, held between two banks of blond satin, and to keep it with you. Here is a one-of-a-kind piece to hand on the way you would share a beloved place, with someone who will take the time to look at it.