Friedr. Herder Abr. Sohn is one of the oldest names associated with the Solingen cutlery industry. The company traces its history to 1727, when Peter Herder had the “Schoppenass” — the Pik As, or Ace of Spades — entered in the register of the Solingen cutlers’ court. The spade would become one of the most recognizable marks in Solingen cutlery, appearing on everything from kitchen and butcher knives to pocket knives and specialized working knives. Among the more unusual Herde

Böker traces its Sportmesser to 1869, while Remington's R3843 is documented in 1923. What does surviving historical evidence actually show?

My third and final day in Solingen was less about seeing finished knives behind glass and more about digging into the history behind them. After spending the previous days exploring the Solingen Stadtarchiv and the Deutsches Klingenmuseum, I had the opportunity to go deeper into the museum's archive. For a collector, this is where things get especially interesting. Old catalogs, pattern books and manufacturer materials can answer questions that the knives themselves often can

The Deutsches Klingenmuseum in Solingen. After spending Day One at the Solingen City Archive (Stadtarchiv Solingen), working through old catalogs, records and other material, Day Two was the opposite: I finally got to see the knives themselves. I spent the day at the Deutsches Klingenmuseum, where the history I had been reading about was sitting right in front of me in the display cases. Regular adult admission was €8, and for anyone interested in traditional knives or Soling

Beginning a three-day research trip to Solingen in search of answers about the origins of the Sportmesser and German rivet knives. The Journey North I traveled from Munich to Solingen, Germany—the city long known as the “City of Blades”—to spend three days researching two longstanding questions that had been driving my work. The first was to determine just how old the Sportmesser really is. Böker has long stated that it has manufactured the Sportmesser continuously since 1869