Any Still Made in Germany?

R

rwasham

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Mar 27, 2009
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So I was perusing my friend's old knife collection the other day and he was showing me all of these old Boker, Bulldog, Weidmannsheil, and kissing crane knives. I know some of these companies have moved their manufacture to china and some have staed in germany. Does anybody know which knife brands of these are still made in germany?
 
Boker manufactures in Germany (not all of their knives, though - they also now manufacture in China, Taiwan, & Argentina)

Bulldog still manufactures in Germany

Weidmansheil - not sure if they're still being manufactured

Kissing Crane are now being made in China; I'm pretty sure the ownership changed from when they were made in Germany

Puma still makes some of their knives in Germany - but also in Spain (& perhaps elsewhere)

C. Schlieper/German Eye also manufactures in Germany

Linder also - though they also manufacture in China

Some others as well (not all the German knife manufacturers export to the USA)
 
Kissing Cranes sodbusters were made in Germany, at least until a couple of years ago. Then from what I've read, production was moved to Italy. If its China now,like the previous poster suggests, I wouldn't be surprised.

The company that makes the klaspmessers (with the cat logo), their name slips my mind, are also still German made.
 
Boker Tree Brand, German Bull, and Hen & Rooster are still made in Germany.

Stainz
 
Friedrich Hartkopf, Friedrich Olbertz (Bulldog Brand!, Schlieper Eye Brand!, Fight´n Rooster), Josef Diefenthal, Robert Klaas (Kissing Cranes, Hen&Rooster)

All these lean tiny companies produce their knives 100% in Germany. :)
 
Bulldog has suspended German production as of 2008; Fight'n Rooster make maybe one knife a year these days. Kissing Crane shifted 100% chinese a couple years ago.

The main mfg's are Olbertz and Boker; they are making most brands these days. And Olbertz has went to 4hr days and only employing their aged cutlers that work a little cheaper. But German's are still making Eye Brand, Hen/Rooster and Boker.

Thus, I suspect with the German economy the way it is. And the American consumer the way we are... The German knives will slowly fade away unless something changes.

Ten years ago if you wanted a little cheap carry knife you bought a Schrade or Eye Brand or Boker. These days you get a Rough Rider or Winchester. This aspect of the market has affected the quality German / American producers way more than we realize. And they are not able to stay in business by just making "collector" knives. They sell less low end knives, thus their high end go up in price; that cuts them out of more peoples low end budget thus they sell fewer; thus their price moves up; etc.etc.
 
@knifeswapper
Kissing Crane shifted 100% chinese a couple years ago
Are you sure?
Their products (pocket knives, manicure sets) are still marked with the Kissing Crane logo and "Robt Klaas Solingen" - and due to the Solingen law they are not allowed to brand in this way on Chinese production knives!
 
How about the Buck Creek brand? Are these knives still German made? They are advertised as made in Germany, but in day and age, one rivet or spacer may have been made there, but the rest of the knife may well have been made in China.
 
bvik said:
Mercator
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Not a company, more a pattern ;) made by Otter nowadays as Jack already mentioned it above.

About Puma knives; their Puma Tec lineup is made in asia, but Puma IP is made (propably) in Spain and Puma Solingen is made in Solingen. The same with Böker; their Böker Solingen lineup is from Germany, Böker Plus is made in Asia and Böker Arbolito is made in Argentinia.

There are the smaller companies, that still are working and making great knives - beside Otter and Hartkopf - there´s Diefenthal, Klaas (aka Kissing Cranes), Schlieper (aka Eye Brand Knives aka Friedrich Olbertz), Hubertus, Hirschkrone, Kneissler, Linder, Richartz (their older knives were very nice ones), Robert Herder, Tina Messer... these are just the companies that come in mind when talking about traditional knives made in good ol' Germany. There are more others out there, smaller ones and ones that make only modern knives. I had to make some brainstorming :D (I tried to keep in alphabetical order)

As you can see, there are still a lot of cutleries left that make still knives in Germany. Some make the overseas, but that´s just the minor number. Here comes Herbertz, Haller Stahlwarehaus etc in mind. They let their knives make in asia or somewhere else.

Hope that helps a little.
 
Just like to add that the Böker Germany knives I have are all of excellent quality&finish. They deserve more attention as they are CASE's equal at least.
 
I agree that the Tree Brands are very fine knives. I own several and the craftsmanship is excellent. I would love to tour some of the German manufacturing facilities someday.
 
Careful with your assumptions about Robert Klaas. I got one of these in a trade as an "extra" goody to sweeten the pot:

http://www.agrussell.com/hallmark-robert-klaas-medium-stockman---black-delrin/p/HAL-RK329BD

Clearly shown there to be made in China, but there is no mention of it anywhere on the knife. The knife is quite nice and very well made, but nowhere does it say the country of origin. AG was my "go to" source when verifying the maker of this knife.

Robert
 
That´s interessting, Robert.

Especially when you follow the original HP of Robert Klaas http://www.robert-klaas.de/original-klaas-taschenmesser.html I can see even from distance, that there the shield looks different. I can´t see the tang stamp on your shown knives, but on the original Solingen made Robert Klaas there´s Solingen stamped on the other side of the tang.

This makes me curious if the Robert Klaas Cutlery knows what´s going on there.... I doubt that they would their name for a non-Solingen-made-product without marking it like that. Böker does it and several others too. But thanks for the link.
 
Reading from some other sources suggests the Robert Klaas brands (like Kissing Crane) were acquired by a company called 'Hallmark Cutlery', who is now importing from China. A.G. Russell has several listed on his site (all clearly listed as originating in China), and his page does mention the link to Hallmark Cutlery.

"HallMark Cutlery has brought back old world tradition with the revered Kissing Crane brand.(...)"
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http://www.agrussell.com/knives-by-maker-kissing-crane/c/20679/

I would assume any 'new' knives on vendors' shelves currently marked from Solingen are probably leftover from before the brand was bought out by Hallmark, and are of German origin. As Robert indicated, it looks like the newer production knives aren't marked with country of origin (which is typical of many China-produced knives).


David
 
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David, I just did some searching because of your post above. I found out, that Robert Klaas actually isn´t sold out to Hallmark. Some of their knives are made under contract from a company in Chine. But the mainproduction is still running in Germany. (Here´s a link to a german spoken forum http://uhrforum.de/der-messer-thread-t17133-730 for further explanation. - Sorry I couldn´t find anything in english language)

In fact some of their knives are made in China and stamped with Robert Klaas. On the german made knives there´s still Robert Klaas, Solingen stamped.
 
Thanks Andi.

Sort of an interesting post in that thread, which caught my attention (post #14591 on that page, as translated to English by Google Translate):

( http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://uhrforum.de/der-messer-thread-t17133-730&tl=en )
"Last night I had sent an email to Klaas,
as to the diameter of Klaus.
This morning, the answer was there, the org. Mail I forwarded to Klaus.

With your presumption that the knife was not made ​​in Solingen, you are correct.

This knife, we moved through a partner in America, which sells under the brand name "Klaas crown" this knife.

Nonetheless, we finished "Stockman" models for the American market in Solingen.
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If the translation is correct or accurate, I wonder what 'finished' in Solingen implies? Makes me wonder if most of the manufacturing work was done elsewhere, with the finishing touches like scales, hafting, etc. done in Solingen(?). I know some makers have 'built' knives like this before, with blades and basic hardware manufactured in one place, and the 'assembly' or finishing/packaging/shipping done from somewhere else.

Here's an interesting description from another vendor of the 'Kissing Crane' line (non-BF member, so I won't link it or name it; bold emphasis added):

"The Robert Klaas factory in Solingen, Germany, where master cutlers have been crafting quality knives for over 175 years, was founded in 1834. Klaas introduced the Kissing Crane line of traditional pocket knives, hunting knives, and folding knives that were assembled and polished by hand. The Kissing Crane Knives have been a favorite for many generations, and continue to be in strong demand by the serious collector and user alike. While the factory in Solingen has slowed production, the design and handcrafted character has not. Hallmark Cutlery has continued the Klaas family tradition and now imports these quality classics in from China. So while the factory location has changed, the impressive value that these knives afford has not!"
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I'm wondering if the 'slowed production' is reflective of the (potentially) different role for finishing, as opposed to full manufacturing.

All of the vendor sites I'm seeing right now, seem to be listing and pricing these knives at levels well below what the German-made knives might've been (and many are also listing origin as China). I'm not seeing any direct references to 'Solingen' or 'Germany' in individual product descriptions of them, which seems telling to me...


David
 
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I know what you mean, David. This has been done by many others before; I mean letting the knife being made somewhere else and then finish it Germany just to get the predicate "Made in Germany". That´s somehow sad. But being honest - there seem to be two types of Klaas knives out there. One are originally made in Solingen and others are finished in Solingen. For a non-known-knife-guy it would be hard (nearly impossible) to see the difference.

Of course you could see that a 20,00 € knife is not to produce in Germany. But that´s one side of the medal. And price is definitelly not the topic of this thread.

However - after the research this evening and what Robert mentioned above, I found out that there are actually two brands of Robert Klaas knives out there. One are made in Germany and the others are made propably in China. No day here without learning something new...
 
willgoy said:
Just like to add that the Böker Germany knives I have are all of excellent quality&finish. They deserve more attention as they are CASE's equal at least.
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I could not agree more, every Boker I own is great and what a great value, a large stockman can be found for $30-35, without blade rub or gaps in scales, razor sharp. Boker also does great with their heat treats and I prefer carbon blades ( personal preference ) but their SS is great, takes and holds a really nice edge.

Pete
 
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