Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Thiers cutlery museum, founded in 1982, succeeds the Barante Museum (1924-1981) to preserve the material and intangible heritage of seven centuries of local cutlery. Installed in two classified historical buildings (house of the Man of the woods and house of the Consuls) and in the valley of the Rouets, it enhances the craft and industrial techniques related to the manufacture of knives, as well as their international marketing from the seventeenth century.

The Thurnese cutlery, attested by the 15th century, was developed thanks to the hydraulic strength of the Durolle, the local forests (wood for sleeves) and an abundant labour force. The cutlery, organized in jurand as early as 1567, produced blades exported to Europe and beyond. The museum traces this epic, from the artisanal workshops of the wheels (where the emulators worked elongated) to the industrialization of the 19th century, marked by electrification and social movements.

The Rouets valley, which was incorporated into the museum in 1998, illustrates the traditional movement and polishing, while the collections display straight and closing knives, reflecting the evolution of usage (hunting, table, crafts). The museum also plays an economic role in stimulating local tourism, with 23,600 visitors in 2016, and collaborating with events such as Coutellia, an international festival of art knives.

The 20th century crises (Asian competition, declining employment) reduced the sector from 9,000 to 3,000 jobs between 1970 and 2000. The museum, by saving tools and know-how, responds to a heritage emergency while impulsing an artisanal renaissance. His temporary exhibitions, such as the one on Damascus steel in 2020, and his educational workshops perpetuate a thousand-year tradition.

Architecturally, the museum anchors itself in the medieval city of Thiers, with wood-paned buildings (15th to 16th centuries) and brownfields converted, such as the Creux factory of Hell. The Durolle, a former economic engine, is now a guiding thread of visits, linking social history (records of 1936) and technical (crossing of the blade wheel to electricity in 1903).

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