Honoré Blanc (1736–1807) was a French gunsmith and inventor. He was one of the first to use the concept of interchangeable parts. Blanc was born in Avignon, France in 1736. At age 12 he became an apprentice to a gunsmith. He was an armorer at the Charleville armory in Charleville-Mézières, Ardennes, France. In 1763 he became the controller of gunlocks at the Saint-Étienne arms factory. Just before the French Revolution, he came up with the idea of interchangeable parts for gun locks. 