Felix, the finest kitchen knives from Solingen, the city of blades
Since 1790, FELIX have been making unique chef’s knives. Founded in the German town of blades, Solingen, Felix is one of the oldest knife manufacturers in Europe.
The Felix family started early on with the production of small series and individual production of cutlery for farmers, courts and court blacksmiths. Karl Gustav Felix, a trained cutler, founds the company “Felix Schneidwarenfabrik Solingen” and thus begins knife production on a larger scale.
In its long tradition, Felix is committed to the highest quality in craftsmanship and the use of high-quality steel for his knives. At Felix, kitchen knives are traditionally made by hand.
A knife needs more than forty work steps before it leaves the factory in Solingen . In every process there is knowledge that has been passed down for centuries. But craftsmanship and a lot of skill are also the basis for top-class chef’s knives.
The raw materials that Felix processes in the Solingen plant are only high-alloy stainless steel, razor blade steel and multi-layer steel. The high-quality kitchen knives are drop-forged. Durable handle scales are attached to the one-piece steel. This makes the knife suitable for the toughest kitchen use. All stainless steel blades guarantee flexibility, corrosion resistance and absolute edge retention. The complex process of tempering and multiple ice hardening produces blades with an outstanding hardness for stainless steel.
The uniform fiber flow of the microstructure of the forged knife steel contributes significantly to the high quality. In the final step, the blades are finely ground by the Solingen grinders, who can also be described as freehand artists.
When we visited the Felix company last summer, we were able to see how many work steps are carried out entirely by hand in a knife workshop. This requires a lot of learning from the knife makers until everything is done correctly and until a feeling for steel and the handle materials has been developed. Skill, experience, a good eye and a sure instinct are required.
The tips and tricks, the secrets of production are passed on from the masters to the trainees in a long tradition.
This includes the matt finish according to Felix knives are much more widespread on the world market. Production methods are changing, digitization is also finding its way into a traditional company. However, the high quality through manual work remains.
Lasering is a topic in the measurement of the blade geometry, in the cutting of materials and, which is also interesting for us, in labeling. But only on a very small scale, such as branding or giving a name to a blade.
We at TYPEMYKNIFE® have the First Class Wood and Size S Olive listed in our program. All Felix knives are also available in the 3D engraving configurator from TYPEMYKNIFE® to design.
