Undine Green: Laguiole Knife with Full Handle in Green Elder Burl – Chiseled Bee – Chiseled Spring

1159€

“Undine Green” is the only knife of its kind, and one cutler at Laguiole en Aubrac made all of it by hand. Its full handle in green-dyed elder burl has the color of a sleeping pond: a deep green bordering on bottle green, darkening almost to black wherever the grain dips and clearing into milky veils where the light catches it. Tiny golden glints rise to the surface in the eyes of the burl, like specks of sunlight that dropped to the bottom of the pond and stayed there, locked in the wood and brought back to life each time the hand moves.

Along the spring runs a continuous frieze of leaf-like flames, chiseled in polished relief against a dark, deepened ground. Every tip rises, bends over, and fits into the next one without ever curling shut into a scroll, which keeps the motif traveling forward along the entire back. Picture grasses in a lazy current, laid flat and lifted again by water that never pauses and has no destination.

Keeping that movement going demands painstaking chiseling. Each flame is outlined individually and then brought up in relief, on a strip a few millimeters wide, over the whole back, with no possibility of retouching anything. At the top, the bee stands guard over the current. Its broad wings, split into panels by raised veins over a finely matted ground, and its body, ringed with regular ribs, sit under a stippled shield that crowns it like a coat of arms. It closes the composition with the calm authority of a sentinel posted at the water’s edge.

“Undine Green” is for Laguiole enthusiasts who answer the call of deep colors and want a piece with a story to tell. Water-green elder burl with golden glints just under its surface, the leafy flames on the spring, and the shield-crowned bee form one consistent design, conceived to delight the eye and the hand together.

undine green: laguiole knife with full handle in green elder burl – chiseled bee – chiseled spring

SKU: LEA PU - PM 12CM LPE SURR - VER OND Category: One-of-a-Kind Laguiole Knives Category: One-of-a-Kind Laguiole Knives

Created in 1829 in the small village of Laguiole for local farmers, this knife has risen to become one of the most celebrated in France, distinguished by its emblematic bee, a symbol of prestige and quality.

Laguiole en Aubrac Full-Handle Knife in Green Elder Burl

The colors of deep water define this Laguiole. Bottle green on the surface and black down in the hollows of the grain, its full handle in green-dyed elder burl is lit by milky veils and scattered with small golden glints in the eyes of the wood, like sunlight resting at the bottom of a pond.

Leafy flames in polished relief run without a break along the spring on a dark ground, each tip nesting into the next. The bee at the head sits under a stippled shield, its broad wings paneled by raised veins and its body evenly ribbed.

4.7" (12 cm) full handle in green-dyed elder burl, no bolsters.
Exclusive model: one of a kind, never to be reproduced.
3.9" (10 cm) blade in Sandvik 12C27MOD stainless steel.
Chiseled bee beneath a stippled shield, spring chiseled with leafy flames.
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.

"Undine Green" is a pond held in wood and steel: green depths with golden glints, a current of chiseled grasses, and a bee on watch above. No second knife like it will be made. If this green has already caught your eye, this is your chance to own it.

Bottle green in the depths and milky where the light lands, the dyed elder burl hides small golden glints in the eyes of its grain. On the spring, leaf-like flames in polished relief lean and rise again over a dark ground, never closing into a curl. The bee keeps watch beneath its stippled shield, broad wings paneled by fine raised veins, its body ringed with steady ribs.

Description

There are knives you admire from the outside, and knives you dive into. This is one of the latter. The handle is exactly the shade of deep water at dusk, a dark, heavy green, black where the grain dips and veiled in milky light where it rises, as if the daylight gave up halfway to the bottom. Small golden glints wink from the eyes of the burl. Think of sunshine that drifted down into a pond years ago and has been held there ever since, by water that clearly means to keep it.

On this motionless water, the frieze along the spring is the only thing that moves. Its leafy flames lift, bend, slot together, and push on, never closing on themselves, chiseled in polished relief over a dark ground. They are grasses pressed down by a slow current, raised up, pressed down once more, all the way along the back. Every one was outlined and then worked up in relief across a few millimeters, with no room for a second pass, so that the movement never breaks.

Up at the head, a sentinel stands at its post. The bee crouches under its stippled shield as though under a helmet, broad wings neatly paneled by crisp veins, its body banded with regular ribs. Its stillness is that of a guard on duty. This bee is the undine of the knife, the discreet figure at the edge of the green water that you seem to glimpse for a moment before it dissolves into the reflection again. The whole knife holds in that balance. Below, deep water with a few golden glints asleep in it, across it a current of chiseled grasses, and overhead a sentinel who never stirs.

Green Elder Burl

Burls form on an elder when the trunk swells and its fibers, instead of rising straight, tighten and coil back on themselves. This natural disorder creates a dense, unpredictable pattern of swirls and small, closely packed eyes, which stabilization locks deep into the wood before the dye goes in.

The green dye gives the burl the depth of a still pond, a bottle green that drops into black in the hollows and lightens into milky veils over the raised areas. Being denser, the eyes of the wood hold less dye, so tiny golden glints come through. Nature never repeats a handle like this, and that pond-like color gives "Undine Green" its entire character.

Where each golden glint appears is decided by the wood alone, and on this handle they have settled once and for all. If this is the green you have been looking for, it will not come around again in this form.

Undine Green: Laguiole Knife with Full Handle in Green Elder Burl – Chiseled Bee – Chiseled Spring

Laguiole en Aubrac Full-Handle Knife in Green Elder Burl

Green Elder Burl

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