Identifying/Valuing a French Carbon Knife - Thiers France 107

Just stumbled upon a french carbon knife stamped "Thiers France 107" - see pics

Aside from bad/uneven sharpening and pitting/scratches, and I'm curious to understand the quality of this knife since:

1) it does not have a full tang
2) the bolster is not integrated with heel/blade (is the bolster supposed to be forged as part of the blade?)

Anybody have input here?

Thanks in advance

 

Rat tail, very common in pre-WW2 French blades. Very light, these carbons can get easily crazy sharp.

 

Thanks Benuser, much appreciated.

I hope to hear more (replies?) about the blade/bolster construction.
For example, it looks like the nice vintage Sabatiers have an integrated bolster, no visible seams with the blade itself.
Can I read anything into that type of construction vs what I have?
Just curious...

 

site:cheftalk.com "rat tail"
site:cheftalk.com Nogent

Nogent is how this contruction is usually called.

 

Bernard Levine, who knows his stuff, wrote about the Nogent construction:
"The tang would have been longer than the handle, peened over a tiny nickel silver burr at the butt end.
Also very thin.
The original ebony handles tend to split, because they are bored down the center with a large diameter hole, leaving just a thin web of wood on the sides. They look solid, but they're not."

 

But the advantages were the little weight and easy replacement. Only possible when labour hours didn't cost much, and ebony from the colonies was plenty available.

 

ah... excellent - thanks again!

 

My pleasure, Kevin

 

Interesting knife. It looks very old indeed!
It has what appears to be a cast guard, probably pewter.
While it shares the collar and rat tail tang construction with the Nogent style, Nogent mostly seem to have had an integral finger guard.
This one is an elaboration upon an elaboration. It looks very "cottage industry"!