Activities

The department of the Tarn built itself with its own two hands and still possesses its own special know-how in a variety of areas. To understand it, you have to paint the portrait of the craftsman as well as that of his skills. Here are a few examples...

Ever since the middle ages, the land of Tarn has had an abundance of weavers, dyers and drapers of all kinds.

Pastel-woad is a case in point that recalls the traditions surrounding textile manufacturing. These later became established in the southern half of the department with industrialisation and mechanisation and the establishment of the first textile mills in Castres and Mazamet.

In spite of crises and radical changes, tailoring and the “Made in Tarn” know-how are still just as important.

Christian Moretti has had an international reputation as a Master Cutler for 25 years. After working in Normandy and Corsica, he set up his trade in the Tarn, near to Réalmont. He is a metalworker, blacksmith and a cutler and manufactures his knives from scratch, making his own steel, using ore collected from all areas of France, but especially from the Tarn. And that is how he came to make the Taranis, a unique knife which, with its pastel woad leaf pattern on the blade, symbolises the Cocagne area. He uses Tarn boxwood, dyed with pastel woad by the Pastellière in Albi, to make the handles for the Taranis knives. He also provides, with his partner, training in cutlery forging and in ferrous metalworking.