Solingen, Germany: the City of Blades.
For centuries, Solingen, a city in western Germany, has been synonymous with high-quality knives, tools and cutlery. What’s to thank for the city’s blade-making prowess? The city’s copious natural resources. Historically, the currents of Solingen’s rivers provided enough power to dependably fuel the city’s factories and steam-operated machinery, giving the city an edge over other industrial hubs for churning out consistent blades. Nearby ore deposits, forests (for a steady supply of timber), an influx of German and Austrian swordsmiths and proximity to trading hubs, like Cologne, kept Solingen at the forefront of knife and flatware production for centuries.