Kaufmann & Söhne, Solingen
The Heinrich Kaufmann & Sohne, India-Werk, company was founded in 1856. This metalware business proved to be a large and important business in Solingen. It originally concentrated on the export of its products to the East and West Indies. From 1902-1910, Ernst Kaufmann was granted many patents that protected various methods of locking their rotatable blades and lock-knives. A nineteenth-century letterhead featured their focus-on exports to the: East India, China and Japan. Kaufmann also concentrated on the manufacturing and sale of: all types of cutlery, pen and pocket knives, razors, scissors, tableware, "The best German tools" and "The finest surgical instruments with cutting edges". Come WWI, Kaufmann manufactured many S98/05 butcher bayonet blade blanks (1915-1916), along with many lock-blade knives that had a corkscrew, a can-opener and an awl contained within the knife body. These were often marked "Mercator" or "K55K". In 1922, the company was located on Rheinstrasse 12-44 and advertised their lock-blade knives in Solingen und sein Industriebezirk (see advertisement above). Kaufmann officially registered with the Solingen chamber of commerce on September 11, 1928. Come the Third Reich, early era SA and NSKK daggers were made. They bore Kaufmann's 1897 registered trademark of: a crowned lily-charged shield trademark surrounded by "Kaufmann & Söhne Solingen" an oval. The company was located on Gasstrasse 16-18 in 1939. After WWII, Kaufmann continued to operate successfully, making: gardening tools, razors, razor blades, scissors, and a variety of knives. Trading declined in the 1970s and Kaufmann eventually closed in 1995, unable to come to terms with the flood of imports from the Far East. Otter-Messer GmbH later acquired Kaufmann's "Mercator" trademark.
| Maker | Kaufmann & Söhne |
| Location | Solingen |
| Trademark | Mercator | K55K | a crowned lily-charged shield |
| Founded | 1856 |
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