All About Pocket Knives

Hi All,

Merry Christmas Eve. Just picked up these to knives. They are old in the could be junk or rare find category of oddities. They’re well made but a little rough. The Damascus confuses me as it looks like the cheap stuff we see everywhere these days but they’re way too old to be from the modern slag steel farm. Was wondering if anyone could shed some light on what these are and what they were used for. They have the Laguiole fly and the file work is well done. The size has really got me scratching my head. They seem way too large to be a melon tester. They’re obviously from Europe but used for ham slicing maybe? Thank you!

Very interesting knives! I have quite a few vintage knives from the Laguiole region, but none them are anything close to those and none of them are made with damascus steel. As you probably know, anyone can put the name Laguiole on their knives as there are no proprietary rights, and there are many manufacturers in the region and even more fakes/reproductions from elsewhere in the world that put the Laguiole name on their knives. If those two knives were fixed blades I wouldn't hesitate to call them fish fillet knives. Hopefully, someone with knowledge about these two knives will share some definitive information about them.

Thanks Herb. Very baffling. Can’t wait to find out what they were for.