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Knives at Europe

D

Dimit78

Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
50
I am curious why there are so many knife makers in USA and there are so little in Europe.It seems like there is no much interest in Europe for high quality knives.To say the truth I am a bit jealous for American people because of this...
 
Is it your experience that there are really fewer knife makers in Europe? or is it just that few participate on the forum?
 
Well, both. The number of European people that participate in the forum indicates the interest.The only knife makers I know in Europe are Boker,Fallkniven and some less known like fox,maserin and martinii.And Victorinox of course. Also the internet knife shops in Europe are very very limited.
 
There really are a lot more good knifemakers than that. The Scandinavians alone have several good companies that make their own knives in Sweden, Norway, and Finland, unlike Fallkniven which farms theirs out to Japan. You can find some of them on www.ragweedforge.com

And there are a tremendous number of Sccandinavian custom knifemakers, too.

Check out www.cutlerytogo.com to find some European manufacturers, especially the many French and Spanish companies.

All of these are good enough to have large followings here in the US.
 
Esav,
Thank you for interesting information.
Reading our forum I had the same feeling like Dimit, and this was very strange for me considering many centuries of European traditions of making edged weapons.
Than I looked at http://www.worldknives.com/index.asp and guessed that most of European companies do not make one-hand opened lock blades (most popular blades on BF), probably because it is illegal to carry in most of Europeans countries.
Does it make any sense?
R
 
Few european knife makers???
I don't think so, maybe you will not find that wide range of colector knives, but makers, there are a few...

Spanish:
Exposito
Muela
Aitor
Sami
Andujar
JJ Martinez
Don Benito
Taramundi

France:
Laguiole en aubrac
fontenille pataud
forge de laguiole
laguiole de artisan
Opinel
DoukDouk
Nontron
Mongin

German:
Olbertz
Puma
Lütters & Cie
Otter
Böker
Hartkopf
Klaas
Hubertus
Linder

I can go on and on and on...
 
bh49 said:
Esav,
...most of European companies do not make one-hand opened lock blades (most popular blades on BF), probably because it is illegal to carry in most of Europeans countries.
R
Click to expand...

Well, they are not.
 
Part of the misunderstanding may be because Europe has such a long-established knife-making tradition. The styles and materials are familiar to Europe but America's love-affair with innovation has led us away from many of them.

Still, slipjoints, natural handle materials, and steels like 12C27 and even 440A are perfectly suitable for daily use, even if our knife enthusiasts are currently chasing high-tech solutions to non-existent problems. :)
 
Redguy said:
Well, they are not.
Click to expand...
Spyderco specifically designed the UKPK for sale in Great Britain. The UK Pen Knife conforms to British law by having a short non-locking blade.

Other European countries have their own laws, some of them less restrictive than US laws.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Still, slipjoints, natural handle materials, and steels like 12C27 and even 440A are perfectly suitable for daily use, even if our knife enthusiasts are currently chasing high-tech solutions to non-existent problems. :)
Click to expand...

You are absolutely right. If you say "pocketknife" to a european, she or he will think about a slipjoint with bone, wood or horn handle and carbon steel blade. Onehand openers, pocketclips and high-tech materials are only known by a few knife-enthusiats.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Spyderco specifically designed the UKPK for sale in Great Britain. The UK Pen Knife conforms to British law by having a short non-locking blade.

Other European countries have their own laws, some of them less restrictive than US laws.
Click to expand...

The UK is an exception. I'm not aware of any other European countries where onehand openers or locking blades are illegal to carry. (Maybe Denmark?) There are many different knifelaws throughout Europe, but most of them are against "too big" blades, balisongs, daggers and especially autos.
 
In Italy it's very expensive to import steels like CPM-S30V, so now big makers as Extrema ratio and Fox mainly use N690Co (Austrian steel) because it costs less.

Moreover in my country all the knives are very expensive and laws are restrictive and not clear. In general: no swords, no daggers, no autos, no knives without "justified carrying". Balisongs are legal. We can carry a knife only for activities like trekking, camping, fishing, hunting... in town no knives.
Italian market is restrict.

However we have also brands who make great military knives (i.e. Extrema ratio Col Moschin or Fox last production knives in titanium and carbon fiber).
 
There are lots of brands and custom makers in Europe!:thumbup:

We have knife forums in Germany (messerforum.net), Great Britain (britishblades.com) and possibly some other countries as well!?

If you join one of the European forums you`ll find it out! ;) :D

Ludi
 
Actually, there are quite a few in europe (more manfuacturers, than custom makers, but europe does have quite a few custom makers also).

The difference seems to be that some europeans seem to "demonize" knives. They do this in the u.s. also, but when I lived Germany in the late 80's early 90's, it seemed that it was really politically "incorrect" to be a knife enthusiast. The "climate" (so to speak) was much different there. Europe has some wonderful makers that have been around much longer than the u.s. has been a country.
 
rev_jch said:
Actually, there are quite a few in europe (more manfuacturers, than custom makers, but europe does have quite a few custom makers also).

The difference seems to be that some europeans seem to "demonize" knives. They do this in the u.s. also, but when I lived Germany in the late 80's early 90's, it seemed that it was really politically "incorrect" to be a knife enthusiast. The "climate" (so to speak) was much different there. Europe has some wonderful makers that have been around much longer than the u.s. has been a country.
Click to expand...

Hi rev_jch,

hopefully you enjoyed your time in Germany!? :D

Guess you`re right with your opinion about the different points of view to knives in Germany and USA. (Though the activities in the knife-related scene are growing up .);)
But I think you`re wrong in your opinion about the numbers of manufacturers and custom makers. :D At a rough count ~50 german makers are member of the German knifemakers guild only (there are many members from other countries also). Not to count the many makers outside the guild and hobbiest makers. There are also knifemakers guilds in other european countries as well as hundreds of parttime makers.
Manufacturers are not that much.;)

Greets,

Ludi :D
 
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