 Hello from Michel Auriou - General Manager - Auriou ToolworksHi, I'm Michel Auriou, a 4th generation rasp and tool maker. I would like to tell you a little history of our tool production.
The original factory was established in 1856 by Mr Duneau at Châtenay-Malabry near Paris. Mr Duneau manufactured tools for artists (Maillol, Rodin, Camille Claudel, Belmondo…). He sent riffler blanks to Saint-Juéry in south west France to be hand "stitched" by Mr Caussé, my grandfather's brother in law. Without a child to continue the factory, Mr Duneau made a proposition to Paulin Caussé to come to Paris. Paulin Caussé accepted and he bought the Duneau factory in 1921.
Louis Auriou, my grandfather, went to Paris to help Paulin. Louis came back to Saint-Juéry in 1933 and worked alone up until 1960 when he and my father Bernard bought the company from Paulin. The forge and building where we now work in Saint Juery was built in 1967 and extended in 1975.
We had to close the business in 2007 when we had 17 workers. Some friends invested to re-start the business in 2008. They did not want such an old company with such a wonderful history to die and for all our skills to be lost.
Despite the tough economic times we have recovered many of our old markets and we continue to look at new traditional tools to make for the precision shaping of wood, stone and plaster. We are now a team of 7 workers based at the same factory. We do not plan to get much bigger, just better and better at making great hand tools.
We are still the only toolmakers that use the same forging techniques that earned Auriou a deserved reputation for quality. This reputation for fine tools is appreciated by artists and craftspeople throughout the world.
We are a small team - Myself (I do a little bit of everything), 2 blacksmiths/grinders, 2 stitchers, one stitcher/general trainee and one blacksmith/grinder trainee.
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 Bernard - BlacksmithBernard is our blacksmith, he has been making tools for over 31 years, he was originally taught by my Grandfather. He has been making tools even longer than I have! He is able to make free-form tools by hand; those are the ones that are not produced using a die. He works with the raw materials taking them through the annealing process and produces the un-ground and un-polished blanks that are passed to Thierry for the critical process of straightening the orientation of the grain of the steel. |
 Dennis - StitcherDennis is our stitcher he has worked in the Auriou factory since 1976. Stitching is the process of creating each tooth on a rasp or riffler by hand. This must be done consistently along the length of the rasp, and also on the sides if required. He is another one that started work in the factory before me. He has been stitching since 2001, it takes a year to become proficient as a stitcher and he now stiches all of the rasps that we currently produce. Dennis is teaching Thierry how to stitch. |
