Robert Herder ⭐ Top pick

Good knives are made by hand. Since 1872, this conviction guides every gesture at Windmühlenmesser. We perpetuate Solingen's traditional techniques, the city that made Germany the world reference in cutlery.

The Herder lineage in cutlery goes back well before the founding of the company. Around 1770, the sons of Clemens Herder, Robert's great-grandfather, already formed a community of manufacturers in Keusenhof, a cutlery hamlet in Solingen. In 1810, Daniel Herder founded his own company. Robert Herder, born in 1841, worked there with his brothers after the death of their father. In 1872, he left the family business and started his own, still at Keusenhof.

Robert initially focuses on retail customers in Thuringia and Saxony. It only produces quality cutlery: bread knives, paring knives, slaughterhouse knives, scissors. He is a good trader who knows his products and visits his customers himself. His son Paul, born the same year as the foundation, entered his apprenticeship at sixteen. When he was seventeen, in 1890, Robert sent him to Belgium and Holland to open new markets.

It's Paul who brings back the windmill. Impressed by the mills of the Netherlands, he proposed this image as his trademark. The mill (Windmühle) was removed in 1905 and became the symbol of the house. Paul also designs the distinctive packaging with the red label diagonally on the handle, each knife bearing a short text extolling its merits. He became a partner in 1911 and sole owner in 1914.

Five generations later, the company is still in Solingen. Werner and Günter (Paul's son), then Robert (grandson) and Giselheid Herder-Scholz, and finally Frank Daniel Herder perpetuate the know-how. The blades are still forged and ground by hand, using techniques passed down since the 18th century. Windmühlenmesser knives have become a reference for professional chefs looking for a thin, sharp and lively blade.