I'm finding statements online about the Linder knife company in Germany closing soon... Update: It's true...

One of the problems that might play a role in the demise of traditional knifemakers is that pocket knives are no longer considered normal wear for younger people. Up until the 80's i saw a lot of pocket knives in the pockets of boyscouts, young hunters etc. I no longer see boyscouts carrying knives, in Europe hunters are complaining that membership is dwindling. The PC of the last 30 years made carrying a pocket knife by youngster a crime. Children get suspended for drawing a knife or a gun on a piece of paper. I see about 90 patiënts a week and in two years i have seen 1 pocket knife and 2 multitools on a belt or pocket edge. The market is shrinking and young people, interested in knives might be attracted to more tactical looking knives. They grow out of it later in life ( we all bought Italian made stilleto's in our youth right? ) but these dwindling numbers of customers makes it hard to sell knives to new customers when you are a traditional knifemaker.
 
Jim malone said:
One of the problems that might play a role in the demise of traditional knifemakers is that pocket knives are no longer considered normal wear for younger people. Up until the 80's i saw a lot of pocket knives in the pockets of boyscouts, young hunters etc. I no longer see boyscouts carrying knives, in Europe hunters are complaining that membership is dwindling. The PC of the last 30 years made carrying a pocket knife by youngster a crime. Children get suspended for drawing a knife or a gun on a piece of paper. I see about 90 patiënts a week and in two years i have seen 1 pocket knife and 2 multitools on a belt or pocket edge. The market is shrinking and young people, interested in knives might be attracted to more tactical looking knives. They grow out of it later in life ( we all bought Italian made stilleto's in our youth right? ) but these dwindling numbers of customers makes it hard to sell knives to new customers when you are a traditional knifemaker.
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In Spain one can't even carry a SAK without fear of being given a 500 euro fine. It is ridiculous.
 
I received both of my second hand, (but mint condition), Linder knives today. The Dagger was purchased from a private individual selling it on ebay. It was listed as being of early 1990's vintage in mint/never used condition.

The Bowie was from a reputable knife dealer located out West. It also being in mint/unused condition, but I don't know what vintage it may be. Seems to be of somewhat recent manufacture, but not sure how recent.

Both knives arrived as described... It's always nice dealing with honest folks.
👍😊👍

The Dagger came with it's leather sheath in a plastic bag with factory hangtag.

The Bowie came with factory box and it's leather sheath.

Both knives are marked with Solingen Germany.

The Dagger's Faux Mother of Pearl handle is made of a plastic called 'Perlex', and I must say, it's beautiful and a pretty convincing material.
The blade is very nicely done and finished in a mirror polish.
Overall... A very nicely done Dagger! Two thumbs up!
👍👍

The Eagle Bowie is a beautiful beast! The stag scales, the pommel, the guard, and the blade, simply all go so very well together... Another two thumbs up... way up!!!
👍👍

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Well, I now have my fill of Linder knives... They will represent in my collection the now going defunct German cutlery company.
 
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Triton said:
Okay I'm probably going to be a bit of a contrarian here. I would argue at least in the realm of traditional folders the market is expanding not contracting. As proof I offer up the GEC crazy that is going on. More anecdotally I would mention that I saw more new slip joints at blade this than I have in a long time.
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I would have to respectfully disagree. I think GEC is a very successful anomaly, and a rare one at that. I remember as a kid in the 60s, going to the sporting goods stores in Houston, TX. They didn't have one or two brands of traditional patterns. They had Case, Boker, Schrade, Buck, Schrade/Walden, Kabar (yes, Kabar made folders!), Puma, Henckels, Western, Marbles, Queen, "EYE" brand (Schleiper?), Camillus, Remington, "Tree" brand Solingen knives and on and on. And on top of those, there were the "branded" knives that were made by a jobber and sold as PowrKraft (Montgomery Wards), Craftsman (Sears), Bluegrass (high end hardware stores), and more brands along those lines as well.

And back then when going to the sporting and hunting goods show (NO gun as we know them now) there are all kinds of other small batch knives made my small manufacturers in the US, and other brands brought over from overseas. I still have an OWL brand canoe pattern knife that has "oil the joints" stamped right on the blade! I also saw dozens of knife brands made here in the USA that I never saw any other time and were from small producers that had a small sales force that sold their products at shows. You can get an idea of how many little guys there were as by taking a look at this article recently run in Field and Stream:

https://www.fieldandstream.com/gear/vintage-knife-ads-field-stream

At one time there was probably 50 different brands that we could choose from just for traditionals alone. I remember when Normark started making a large hunting/camping folder. I can remember going to the "dime" store and seeing Sabre, Colonial, and some other crap brand being sold out of a rotating display on the counter. Knives and different brands were everywhere! Seems nearly everyone had a traditional in their pocket, and several girls (not women, girls) had a knife around most of the time. Now, not so many carrying them and certainly not nearly as many manufacturing them.
 
The Linder website just changed all of a sudden clarifying the reason for the closure:

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A.L. said:
Just as I thought. Maybe someone will later pick up the equipment and make something glorious as new company.
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Yeah, very true, that could still happen in the near future... But, that would likely mean that it will wind up with no ties to Germany manufacturing at all. Instead of some products coming from other countries and some still made in Germany, it would likely all be made in Asia.

Of course this is something that happens all the time now, an old brand company closing it's doors, and then a short time later one seeing the brand being used again on strictly China made knives.
As an example, Camillus Cutlery closed up in 2007, the brand was sold off and knives with the Camillus brand started to be offered again. But, the new owners of the brand simply contracted out to mostly china to make knives for them. Other than the brand stamped onto them, the knives had no ties to the original Camillus Cutlery firm.

It's really too bad that Linder couldn't keep the company going within their own family 😔
 
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Legendary_Jarl said:
I spoke with a German collector via reddit and this is what he told me:

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What do you think?
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What do I think?... That we may never know. 🤔

But... I do believe that they knew exactly what they were doing... Keeping everything in a gray area to make customers think that the items they were buying were all German made. I don't buy it for even one second that it wasn't "malicious" 😔
 
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I believe it was true. I found out when i was buying a trachtenmesser for my wedding. I was looking for a traditional bavarian German made knife. Linder sold trachtenmesser under their german knives and knives around the world. Both had different prices. The german made all had Linder, Solingen Germany on their blades and where 3 times as expensive. Then i checked my theorie on YouTube. There is a clip about the knives they made in Solingen where you can see their factory and their staff making their knives. All had Solingen, Germany on their blades.
The problem is that their archaic website mixed their German and Foreign made knives up when you searched for a specific model. You had to check the blade inscription to see if it was a German made or foreign. And the price was a good indicator itself. But it took some detective work to find out if the blade said Solingen, Germany on it. Not a malicious thing just an amateuristic website that mixed everything up if you did a search.
 
Jim malone said:
I believe it was true. I found out when i was buying a trachtenmesser for my wedding. I was looking for a traditional bavarian German made knife. Linder sold trachtenmesser under their german knives and knives around the world. Both had different prices. The german made all had Linder, Solingen Germany on their blades and where 3 times as expensive. Then i checked my theorie on YouTube. There is a clip about the knives they made in Solingen where you can see their factory and their staff making their knives. All had Solingen, Germany on their blades.
The problem is that their archaic website mixed their German and Foreign made knives up when you searched for a specific model. You had to check the blade inscription to see if it was a German made or foreign. And the price was a good indicator itself. But it took some detective work to find out if the blade said Solingen, Germany on it. Not a malicious thing just an amateuristic website that mixed everything up if you did a search.
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Could you link that video here that you mentioned above... Would love to see it! 👍

And, yes, the pricing would likely be the biggest telltale sign, since some items are truly bargain priced compared to some of their others.
 
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PocketKnifeJimmy said:
Thanks, it does seem it will at least be something that the Germans had some part in doing, maybe just assembly... I don't know.

I remember Spain being a source for Hen & Rooster Bowie knives for a bit. I never picked one up, but they surely seemed like they were nicely done and actually had Spain marked on their blade... so, no shenanigans.


I Will probably never know where this knife was actually made, but with it having Solingen Germany on it's blade, that pretty much means something needed to be done in Germany, rather than just being something they imported into Germany.
The whole thing is a mess, and German lax in their import laws has a lot to do with it.
It seems that some countries have simply made it easier to cheat the consumer by having requirements that allow these brand companies to blur the facts quite a bit.
And again, it happens more and more in the USA, my still not understanding how my recently purchased CRKT Sting Dagger is allowed to be sold onto the market without having any country of origin on the knife itself?
I doubt CRKT would purposely break an import requirement, so it must be the loophole is there, so they take full advantage of it.
I have a few Otter Messer folding knives, I do trust them being truly German made 👍

As for the vendor I used, I'd rather not say 👍
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Linder has closed down.
From their webpage: "After efforts to find a successor had not been successful, we ceased our business activities on June 30th, 2022."
As for Solingen made knives: That town has a special protection under German law. Only knives that had all main production steps done within Solingen or Haan may be marked "Solingen". Refer to the german Wikipedia article Solingenverordnung.
So all knives marked Solingen were done there. On the other hand, if a Solingen knife maker sells a blade without this mark, then the knife was manufactured elsewhere. They are proud of the Solingen mark and would put if on, if allowed to do so.
 

@ T tltt Do you know if Linder has closed? I've heard that Hubertus has been liquidated in March of this year, as many German manufactures are not producing anymore. In fact, I purchased a Hubertus, only to be told that the seller cannot ship due to production ceasing. Thanks much for the input.​

 
Because everythings going downhill. Busse isnt making sr101 anymore; im sure theres gonna be more things like this coming our way....
 
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