S.T. Dupont Double Blade

By Michael Moretti

If you were expecting that S.T. Dupont's first-ever release of a double-blade guillotine-style cutter, coming as it does on the occasion of the company's 135th anniversary, would be an ostentatious affair, don't be disappointed at the minimalist approach S.T. Dupont took. The Double Blade cigar cutter is a classic in understated elegance from a company that has a soft spot for the ornate and a tradition of working in precious metals.

The Double Blade's metal may not be precious, but it is high tech. The blades are honed of surgical steel—ideal for both medical purposes and clipping the head of your smoke. The easy-to-clean alloy is strong and corrosion-resistant, and its extreme hardness keeps the edges keen. The size is made for easy storage and transportation. It measures a gaunt fraction of an inch in thickness, about the size of two credit cards stacked on top of each other, and is a little more than three and a half inches long and an inch and a half in width.

The motif is industrial high tech, suggested in the rectangular shape, the four bolts at the corners of the body and the etching of the company's signature near the blade aperture. The only ornamentation comes from a slight variation in the steel grain in the handles, crafted in polished steel, and the body, in brushed steel. The new "D" emblem that the company has been employing in recent years subtly presents itself as the cutter's finger holes. The name is even stripped down, trading in the more opulent guillotine description for the double blade title.

But in a way it all makes sense. If anything, this cutter harks to S.T. Dupont's entrance into the world of smoke and fire with its release of its first Petrol lighter in 1952. It was an elegant, yet simple pocket lighter that made its introduction with the signature "ping" sound and left the gilded trimmings aside. The Double Blade cigar cutter has a suggested retail price of $435.

Visit www.st-dupont.com.

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