Douris Chastel
A story that starts in 1942, near THIERS ...
Just married, Pierre Douris, back from the war, and his wife Lucienne Chastel, both passionate about cutlery, bought "Charles Choty establishments", located in La Monnerie-le-Montel, near Thiers.
The traditional folding knives of this company were very quickly redesigned by Pierre Douris who has, little by little, created tools, each more ingenious than the next, and developed his own vision of folding knives.
He designed his first model in 1947: an automatic knife with a mechanism never seen before in the cutlery world. This creation, which has be the subject of a patent, allowed DOURIS CHASTEL to become a name and find a place in the cutlery world .
This marked the start of a collection of creations that will all aim to be each time easier to manufacture and more practical to use.
© Archives et collection
In the early 1960s, Pierre Douris launched new models of knives with "ejectable blades" (also called "switchblade knives").
The most famous was called "Superoto" (1962), which, after nearly two years of manufacturing study, will sell several thousand copies.
DOURIS CHASTEL company acquired an increasingly strong reputation thanks to these original, preforming and useful knives, such as fisherman's knives with disgorger and hunter's knives with tweezers, to extract guns pellets.
« Le Pionnier », multi-blades knife created at the end of the 70's, experienced the brand's greatest success.
Solange Combronde, Pierre Douris and Lucienne Chastel's daughter, has gradually integrated the cutlery. When you born in the cutlery world, you always stay in, in a way or another.
She juggled for years between production and administration and also opened a store under her own name in Thiers, in 1992.
The family story continued as her daughter took over the management of the store and her son completed the small production team.
In December 2019, as she was at the end of her career and without any direct buyer, Solange Combronde sold DOURIS CHASTEL brand and models to Coutellerie GOYON-CHAZEAU .
The objective for both brands was not to left DOURIS CHASTEL brand history, its multi-blade know-how and its models into oblivion.
After several months of work aimed at acquiring manufacturing methods, mastering production and adapting DOURIS CHASTEL knives to GOYON-CHAZEAU quality criteria, the first DOURIS CHASTEL knives by GOYON-CHAZEAU go out of production, always 100% French and 100% artisanal.
We are happy to present them to you now and thus perpetuate and share a whole story with you.
© Archives et collection