TB knives “Made in France”

TB Groupe and cutlery: The love story of knives “Made in France”

For more than five centuries the artisanal cutlery trade, which later become an industry, made the city of Thiers its home. Today TB Groupe and the city’s team of artisanal cutlers hold these knife manufacturing pioneers’ heritage in esteem.

Thiers: The historical cradle of cutlery

Thiers’ specialization

Since the birth of the cutlery trade in the 15^th century, thirty artisanal cutlers practiced their trade along the Durolle River in Thiers. One hundred years later this group of cutlers was seven times larger, not including those who had not been counted by the city’s tax register, making the known number of cutlers roughly two hundred.

This city in the Auvergne region had no predisposition toward this specialized trade; there were neither iron nor steel mines and no grindstone laborers present in the region.

Cutlery through the centuries

Nevertheless, the Durolle River running through Thiers would be used to power the grind mills and cutlery factories for centuries to come in order to sharpen the blades of these renowned knives.

The local population, lead by its desire, drive and formidable stubbornness, decided to continue in the cutlery trade despite unfavorable geographic and natural conditions. The townspeople played a fundamental role in the rise of the French knife manufacturing industry in Thiers.

In the 17^th century, the Thiers knives were exported to Spain, Italy and all the way to the Levant, using trade routes which passed through Bordeaux or Nantes. In the 19^thcentury the cutlery industry experienced a phenomenal boom. At this point there were approximately 25,000 individuals practicing the cutlery trade in Thiers and its surrounding region.

Thanks to an enhanced organizational system which distributed work to various workshops that specialized in each precise step of the manufacturing process, the artisans of Thiers were capable of producing and furnishing countless hardware wholesalers throughout France and beyond.

TB Groupe continues the tradition of knives which are “Made in France”

TB Groupe: Inseparable from the city Thiers

All of the knives manufactured in the French department Puy-de-Dôme are made in the Thiers workshops.

The singularity of knives which are “Made in France”

The enterprise’s specialists must master every step in the knife manufacturing process, from the creation of the knife’s blade to its handle. This highly controlled production chain upholds the company’s pledge to create high-quality products and respects the company’s code of conduct maintaining the excellence which TB Groupe’s leaders have required for decades.

Raw material inspections, quality controls, resistance tests, the development and design of future knives and the mastery of age-old knowledge all are the components which forge the character of TB Groupe’s unique knives.