Les Fines Lames Knife Cutters
Historically, knife cigar cutters that fold have come with foibles for a number of reasons: The action is awkward, the cut, sloppy and the blade crushes the cigar head in the handle more often than not. French company Les Fines Lames has solved these persistent problems with its Le Petit series, a line of sleek knife cutters made with a blade so sharp, you’ll think you’ve used a guillotine.
Each blade is manufactured from 14C28N stainless steel, which is an anticorrosive metal particularly well-suited for cutlery. Its contoured shape optimizes leverage to make surprisingly swift, clean cuts on each cigar without cracking the wrapper or fraying the edges around the head. Simply raise the blade, place the cigar in the handle’s groove and close the knife with your thumb.
Produced in Thiers, a town in central France renowned for making knives like Laguiole, the Les Fines Lames Le Petit cutters (a mere 4.5 inches long when closed) will fit unobtrusively in your trouser or inner coat pocket. A variety of finishes range from brushed, anodized metals to rare woods. The Anodized Red and Blue models shown here retail for $159 each, as does the camouflage Woodland pattern from the Camo Series. Six different calfskin leather sheaths are also available, including this Petrol Blue Racing model ($42).
No matter the design, all cutters from the Le Petit series can accommodate cigars of all sizes, from thinner, traditional coronas to larger, “new-world” cigars, with thicknesses up to 70 ring gauge. Les Fines Lames is French for “the fine blades” and the product certainly lives up to its name, giving us straight-razor precision in a knife cutter that’s not only nice to look at, but actually works.
