The largest knife manufacturers are all in the kitchen knife category. Victorinox may well be the largest. I'm not sure. Certainly they are the largest in the sporting knife category and I would guess that Boker is the second largest in sporting knives. Wusthof may be as large as victorinox in terms of dollar volume and number of emplyees but certainly not unit volume. Kai cutlery in Japan would be right up there as well. There are some Chinese factories, of course, that put almost any knife manufacturer to shame in terms of volume. I don't which are the largest.
Among U.S. companies it's pretty hard to tell because almost all of them are private companies and don't share the numbers. My guess, just from my own sales, would be that Alcas might be the largest - at least in terms of dollar volume. They are the Cutco/Kabar people. Or, it might be Kai Cutlery's Kershaw/Shun unit here in the U.S. They have been amazingly successful with the Shun line of Japanese kitchen knives. Taylor Cutlery would be one of the largest and maybe the largest in terms of unit volume. They are the S&W/Schrade people. I think Frost Cutlery would also be near the top of the list also. Just a guess there since I don't sell their products. They do support a hugely broad product line. These last two don't manufacture so they would have fewer employees than companies that do. The question was who sells the most, not who hires the most. Gerber, a unit of Fiskars, does a heap of volume also.
If I had to pick the top selling brand among those that appeal to this group, I would guess it is Kershaw. I don't have the manufacturers' numbers so this is all just guesswork. Probably not worth much.
. I thought it was a relatively great knife, I didn't realize until now how much I overpaid.
