About us
La Cognée is your shop to get you into the woods and measure yourself against the beauty, hardness and logic of rustic forestry work.
Genesis of La Cognée
In 2021, I receive a message from a friend who tells me about a guy in France who maintains that the axe is more useful and suitable than the saw for rustic lumbering.
I continue my research and I find a video of this modern-day French farmer who shows how to make his wood only with an axe. The model he porposes is a 900g Trento from the Italian forge BR Rinaldi.
It didn't take much longer for me to get my hands on my first Rinaldi axe.
In August 2023, when I was in Tuscany for vacation with my wife's family, I finally decided to contact Enrico Rinaldi, yet another descendant at the head of the eponymous family company.
He was very enthusiastic about the idea and I began the process of importing his tools, which carry great know-how and a tradition of almost 250 years. Very few forges like those of the caliber of BR Rinaldi have managed to survive the mechanization of agricultural and forestry tools, so it is a joy and an immense honor to make them available in Canada.
Embark on the adventure
I hope that amateurs and dilettantes can also reclaim the beauty of simple gestures, the intelligence that all forestry and agricultural care requires and the time to stop and learn the art of living and leisure.
I therefore invite you to begin your forest quest by getting your hands dirty using something as rudimentary as an axe.