Philippe Starck’s relationship with Forge de Laguiole reaches far beyond the design of a knife. When the manufacture was established in the village of Laguiole in 1987, Starck gave the project its architectural expression: a contemporary building of aluminium and glass, marked by an eighteen-metre blade rising above the landscape of Aubrac. That same instinct — to take an object rooted in tradition and push it unmistakably into the present — defines his work for the table. Starck’s table knife for Forge de Laguiole is conceived as a monobloc: blade and handle forged from stainless steel into one continuous object. The construction removes the visual separation between material and function, allowing the knife to read as a single, precise gesture. In its satin-finished version, the handle carries a subtle bark-like texture. It introduces something almost elemental into an otherwise industrial object — a reference to material and landscape expressed entirely through steel. The surface gives the hand a tactile point of contact while preserving the clarity of the silhouette. The result is recognisably Laguiole without relying on the decorative language traditionally associated with the knife. Starck keeps the archetype, but changes its vocabulary: fewer materials, fewer transitions, greater emphasis on line, grip and the blade itself. Within Forge de Laguiole, this approach has particular resonance. Starck helped give architectural form to the revival of Laguiole knifemaking; his knife applies the same idea at the scale of the table — tradition treated not as something to reproduce, but as something capable of continuing to evolve.

Philippe Starck