July 09, 2021

Le Liadou, an old knife and a robust tool that is reborn...

Bringing this old knife back to life: a territorial project...

Located in the heart of Marcillac, Le Liadou du Vallon ® is a real regional project that maintains the link with local know-how and brings a whole section of the valley's history back to life.
The Aveyron is a reference in terms of cutlery history and this is once again the case with the Liadou ® which, for more than a century, was the favorite tool of all these winegrowers exploiting several thousand hectares of vines. Appreciated for its ergonomics and robustness, the Liadou ® was used to split the wicker to tie the vine in a wreath. An ancestral technique developed by the winegrowers of Marcillac to allow the local grape variety, Mansois (also known as Fer servadou), to give the best of itself. To do this, the winegrowers tied wicker bundles to their belts which served as links between the vine stock and the stakes, hence the local name "Liadou®" ("binding tool”, in Occitan).

Sober, robust and elegant: Le Liadou, a forgotten tool

Formerly the inseparable companion of hundreds of winegrowers, it was subsequently abandoned in favor of more modern techniques, pushed back to the bottom of the drawer, of our collective memories for more than half a century and we almost lost all trace of it. and the memory of his name.

Here we present to you an old Liadou ® , witness to the winemaking history of our region. This knife dating from the 1920s, like most Liadou ®, has been used a lot and the wear on its blade marked "Bec à Rodez – Laguiole" bears witness to this. Similarly, its handle has a "scar" due to the repeated rubbing of the wicker on the horn. The brass rosette is present to reinforce the axis of the blade.