Knife

A good knife is the only kitchen tool you feel before you use it. The weight that nestles into your hand, as if it had been custom-made. The blade so thin that you wonder at the tomato: Why doesn't this knife crush it, why does the slice simply fall off? The wood on the handle that darkens with use, absorbing hands and kitchen.

And then Solingen. The city where blades have been forged since the Middle Ages. That's where the two manufacturers are located, from whom our knife assortment is almost entirely sourced.

The Categories

• Chef's Knives — the central tool, 16 to 26 cm blade. Güde (forged, heavy) or Herder Windmühlenmesser (thinly ground, light).
• Santoku & Yatagan Knives — Asian-inspired shapes, from Herder Solingen.
• Bread & Vegetable Knives — serrated edge for crust, thin blades for tomato and bell pepper.
• Steak Knives — smoothly ground, for the table rather than the kitchen. From Güde.
• Knife Accessories & Sharpening — Horl rolling sharpeners from the Black Forest, knife blocks, leather strops.

Two Schools, One Place

Güde Solingen has been forging knives from a single piece of steel since 1910 — fully forged, as it's called in technical terms. The blades are heavy, robust, and lie solidly in the hand. They forgive a lot and last for generations. Herder Windmühlenmesser takes the opposite approach: the blades are ground thinly, sometimes from carbon steel (the steel traditionally preferred by Japan and France). These knives are lighter, sharper, more delicate — and with regular care, the most precise tools a German kitchen can boast.

Our Tip: The most important thing for sharpness is not the most expensive sharpening stone, but: never put knives in the dishwasher, dry the blade immediately after use, and store them on a magnetic strip or in a knife block, never loose in a drawer. This alone doubles the lifespan of the cutting edge.