Nontron cheese knife

A Nontron cheese knife, to set on the cheese board or keep for the kitchen. Its stainless steel blade handles soft and hard cheeses alike, and its pyrographed boxwood sabot handle sits well in the hand, even when you have to press down on an aged Comté.

The sabot handle is the rounded, pot-bellied shape typical of Nontron, cut from boxwood and then decorated with pyrographed motifs using a hot iron. The blade is stainless steel. Made in the Dordogne by the Coutellerie Nontronnaise, which has carried on the Nontron knife since 1928.

Hand wash and dry it at once, without leaving it to soak: boxwood splits if it sits in water. A little oil on the handle now and then keeps it looking right. For soft cheeses, run the blade under hot water between cuts and it sticks less.