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   In the early 1900s, amid the steep hills and flowing Durolle waters of Thiers, France, blade production was both art and endurance. Here, in factories and small workshops, craftsmen refined their blades in one of the most unusual postures in industrial history: lying prone over the grinding wheels. Rather than stooping or bending, these men stretched their bodies calm and flat, pressing chest and abdomen to a bench suspended above the wheel. The technique had a grim practicality: it …