Selected as "Second quality" for larger cracks in handles, light marks or waviness to the blade. Still amazing and usable knives with a little work and epoxy on the wood and a sharpening.

New Old Stock unused Patural Duprat Sabatier **** (AKA Sabatier Four Star) XXL 35cm / 13.75" hand forged carbon steel chef knife in the 'cuisine massive' style now largely referred to as 'Nogent style' by those outside of Thiers. This style of knife was developed in Thiers long before the upstart town of Nogent started adding knives to their manufacturing (they had been known for scissors in the early 19th century).

These were found with other new old stock knives made in the 1950's and with some PD 'Sabatier Acier Fondu' suggesting a group of knives made in Saint-Remy which is on the other side of the Durolle River from adjourning Thiers. They sport a hand forged hot stamped hand ground blade (looks to have been ground on an old water wheel stone) that is ground with convex grind, light in the tip half and thicker behind the edge in the heel, heel is not sharpened. Handle is one piece of wood (fruit wood?) with a brazed nickel ferrule.

These have been very lightly cleaned to remove the wax that kept them rust free for all these decades, expect a few tiny rust spots, some discoloration to the ferrule and a crack or two in the wood (all handles are secure). We opted for as little intervention as possible to preserve their original surface grind and keep their character. It is so uncommon to find knives like this in their original state. They could always be buffed, but never un-buffed to the factory finish.

While it is hard to pin point the exact years these were made the brazed nickel ferrule ring suggests 30's to early 50's manufacture, the brazed nickel ferrule is an older type construction that was phased out by one piece aluminum tube ferrules in the 50's.

Patural Duprat et Cie (PD) was established in 1901 and made in Saint-Remy, a small town with an old knife-making tradition across the Durolle river from Thiers. In 1918 Mathieu Feuillet Patural renewed the trade marks "Sabatier ****" (four stars) which had belonged to Gabriel Sabatier of Chabreloche and registered a new trade mark "Sabatier Acier Fondu" (Sabatier Cast Steel). Both the new-old-stock Sabatier Acier Fondu and Sabatier **** were found together with the same ferrule construction, the Acier Fondu mostly with etched markings and the 4-star with a hot stamp, suggesting they were likely made during the same period when the two stamping styles overlapped. In 1958 the Sabatier **** brand was sold and would become integrated into the Thiers Issard company name. PD advertised that the factories used hydraulic, hydroelectric, and gas power in Saint Remy Sur Durolle.

Please note these can have small rust spots or imperfections, slight cants or waviness to the edge is possible as well. We do quality control on these, but imperfections are part of the picture.

New Old Stock, Vintage and New Old Stock knives do not come sharpened. Please request sharpening if desired in the order notes section of the cart page.