Knifemakers & Cutlers — Founded 1800–1899

Solingen / Germany

Böker has operated in Solingen since 1869, giving the house over a century and a half of continuous production in Germany's traditional cutlery city.

Best for German pocket, fixed-blade, and collector knives from an 1869 Solingen house

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Sheffield / England

Michael May Knives has worked out of Portland Works since 2007 — a building the maker's own site describes as Sheffield's first purpose-built cutlery factory, dating to 1879.

Best for One-smith custom and traditional-pattern pocket knives from Sheffield's Portland Works

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Chambéry / Savoie / Online

Joseph Opinel designed his beechwood-handled folding knife in 1890 in Chambéry, Savoie, building his first factory in 1901-1903 to mass-produce the wooden handles. The company still sells several million knives a year, spanning the original No.08 pocket knife plus kitchen and outdoor lines.

Best for The classic beechwood-handled No.08, plus kitchen and outdoor knife ranges.

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Kestel, Bursa / Turkey

Pirge is the trading name of Yeşilyayla Cutting Tools, a family-run knife manufacturer in Bursa that the company states has operated continuously since 1879 and is now in its fifth generation of family ownership — making it, by its own account, one of the oldest still-operating cutlery houses in Turkey.

Best for Professional and home kitchen knives from a fifth-generation family cutlery

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Sheffield / England

Samuel Staniforth has manufactured cutlery in Sheffield since 1864, and the firm's own history page points to a specific wartime credential: it names itself as one of the original companies that forged the Fairbairn-Sykes commando dagger, a blade the company notes is still issued today.

Best for Forged Sheffield kitchen and professional knives from an 1864 family firm

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Solingen / Germany

Wüsthof traces to 1814, when Johann Abraham Wüsthof converted his father's small Solingen grindery on the Weinsberg Valley's Wupper River into a dedicated "Shears Factory, Steel and Iron Works," working the trade from an underground cellar in the city that would become known as the City of Blades.

Best for Single-piece-forged German chef's knives from a seven-generation Solingen house

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