#eustache

Master of Constance A predella: Eleven Holy Helpers Saints Christopher, Denis, Eustache, Pantaleon, George, Achatius, Catherine, Barbara, Margaret of Antioch, Vitus and Cyriakus

[Part of the series Knives of Ill Repute.]

modern reproduction

The eustache is an old French knife, going back to the 18th century, though the name comes from Eustache Dubois, a 19th century knife-maker from Saint-Étienne. Originally it was a bog-standard peasant knife, no lock, no frills, just for work. It's rarely made these days, however the design has survived into two iconic French pocket knives: the douk-douk got the blade (wavy, doubles as a grafting knife, very useful to farmers and gardeners), and the Opinel got a sturdier version of the handle.

But enough about the history of cutlery, what about crime? Enter Les Apaches. So by the late 19th-early 20th century, Paris experiences yet another wave of teenage rebels/fashion victims/criminals, except these ones somehow manage to stay completely apolitical. They just make trouble for trouble's sake. They're a constant nuisance, and they carry knives called eustaches to show off and occasionally stab people.

Les Apaches: always down to fuck (Le Petit Journal, August 1904)

However, by then “eustache” meant pocket knife in general, not any specific type. And the association may simply be owed to the fact that Apache (pronounced “ah-PASH”) rhymes with eustache. Hence their Chant (which I should stress was not written by them but for them, or rather against them, it's satirical):

Ohé! les Apaches! A nous les eustaches, Les lingues à viroles, Les longs d’assassins, Pour le bidon des roussins Et pour le ventre des cass’roles!

Which means, more or less: “Yay Apaches! With us the knives, the ringlock blades, the assassin's garrotes, for the cops' guts and the snitches' bellies!” So it's not super clear what these knives actually looked like. Some depictions and the mentions of rings remind us of navajas, and indeed similar knives were by then extremely popular and common in France (complete with pull-ring, external backspring, and noisy ratchet), and had many names besides eustache: cra-cra, à palme, à cran d’arrêt, catalan, and a few years later, de poilu*.

* “Poilu” is slang for the French soldier in WWI. These knives weren't an official army issue but they were mass-produced in staggering amounts. Basically, the trenches made bayonets impractical in 1914 and trench knives weren't manufactured until 1916. In the meantime, cutlers in Thiers were told to increase the manufacture of the folding knives they were already making, and everyone rushed to get one. So if you're French, it's a safe bet that your (great-)grandpa had one. Probably your grandma too.

I made it for my Portfolio, I spend a lot of time to draw these ^^

Narcissa malfoy portrait