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OL Round Table
Who decides which forge is admitted to the A.I.P.C.L.
The name Laguiole belongs to nobody. No trademark protects it, no court defends it. Anyone may stamp it on a blade, and that is what happens by the million: in China, in Pakistan, wherever handwork costs nothing and the bee is just a piece of pressed sheet metal. The word appears on knives that have as much to do with the village of Laguiole as a sticker has with a journey.
Why the A.I.P.C.L. exists
The A.I.P.C.L. was founded by world of innovation Jernoiu e.K. The real aim was not another seal, but a clear signal to consumers: which Laguioles are made in France and which come from somewhere else.
Many dealers sell Laguioles that have never seen a French workshop, out of ignorance or in full knowledge. Customers are led to believe that a Chinese knife has something to do with a Laguiole made in France. The margin is comfortable and the risk is small, for who is going to prove it? The customer almost never finds out. All he notices is that after two years the blade has play in it and that nobody is responsible.
We do not find that annoying, we find it intolerable. Behind every genuine Laguiole stands a person who spent years learning the trade and who carries out more than a hundred operations by hand for a single knife. Trading that work for a cheap imitation is no minor offence. It takes the ground from under an entire craft.
The certificate
The A.I.P.C.L. joined forces with the French forges early on and developed a certificate confirming that a knife really is made in France. It is not tied to a brand but to the individual piece: with its own number, its forge and its owner.
What we owe our customers is full transparency. It is not enough for us that a knife is assembled in France. The parts must come from France too. Handle materials are the only exception, because horn, mammoth ivory and rare woods do not grow in the Auvergne and may come from anywhere in the world.
Why the OL Round Table exists
It would all be simple if the line ran between France and the Far East. It does not. Some companies based in France also source their parts abroad and merely put them together here. You cannot see that in a finished knife. The whole market has become very opaque as a result.
We could have claimed the right to judge on our own. We chose not to, for a simple reason: others know better than we do. They are the cutlers themselves. They know their suppliers, they know the prices, they know the routes, and from a spring, a bolster or the way a bee is filed they can tell at once where a part comes from. That is why we created the OL Round Table.
Its members are all the forges and knife artists listed with the A.I.P.C.L. When a customer wants a knife certified that comes from a house not listed here, we do not decide alone. We ask the Round Table: should we certify this forge and admit it to the A.I.P.C.L.?
How the decision is made
If a forge objects to the refusal
A refusal is neither a verdict nor a full stop. If a forge objects, we seek the conversation. It has to submit convincing evidence that it uses parts from France only and that the knife is made in France as well.
If need be, we visit the workshop and see it for ourselves. We have done so before and we do it gladly: standing in a workshop, hearing the grinding wheel and watching over the cutler's shoulder as he files the bee says more than any document ever could.
Who sits at the OL Round Table
These houses decide with us. Every name stands for a workshop we know, whose knives we sell and whose work we have seen with our own eyes.
Trust and transparency
Trust and transparency matter a great deal to us. A certificate everybody gets is no certificate at all. So we are strict, even when it costs us business.
With the A.I.P.C.L. we bring together the French forges that would otherwise each face the same overwhelming competition from China alone. Together we make a decisive contribution to carrying on the culture, the tradition and the passion of the Laguiole knife makers. This is not about nostalgia. It is about this craft still being here in twenty years.
Are you a cutler and would like to join?
The OL Round Table is open to French manufactories that genuinely make their Laguiole pocket knives in France. Write to us and we will present your house to the Round Table. And if you have doubts about a house already admitted, write to us all the more.
Does your Laguiole not have an A.I.P.C.L. certificate of authenticity yet?
You can have it registered afterwards, no matter where you bought the knife. We check from your photographs whether it really comes from a French forge, assign it to that forge and register it under its own number. Your knife then has the same page and the same document as any knife bought from us.
The examination costs 10.00 euros. If the result is negative, we refund it.