Born under Gemini

On 13 June 1731 a Solingen cutler named Peter Henckels registered a twin as his mark with the town's cutlers' guild. He had been born under the sign of Gemini, so he named the business after the German word for it: Zwilling. That is the whole of the origin, and it makes the company, in their own carefully hedged phrase, “one of the oldest registered trademarks in the world”.

Solingen was already the right place to do it. As Zwilling put it, the first blacksmiths settled there in the sixteenth century, drawn by “rich ore deposits, access to wood and water, and the proximity to Cologne”.

Fire, then ice

Two processes account for most of what a Zwilling blade does, and both have names.

SIGMAFORGE is how the blade is shaped. Rather than heating the whole blank, they heat only the section that will become the bolster, so the steel structure elsewhere is, in their words, “preserved in its entirety, completely unaffected by the heat”. The knife is then forged from that single piece.

FRIODUR is the hardening, and Zwilling applied for the patent in 1939. The steel goes above 1000C, is dropped very fast below 800C, then cooled to room temperature and tempered. The ice stage, as they describe it, “removes the stress from the material, resulting in a consistently hard blade that has excellent elasticity and is corrosion resistant”. Their own summary of the company is shorter: “We didn't invent the knife, but we have perfected it.”

The German forged lines run to 58 Rockwell with a V edge at about 30 degrees inclusive, fifteen a side.

What we carry

The selection here leans professional, and in several cases Japanese.

Bob Kramer is the American bladesmith Zwilling has worked with for years, and his knives are made in Japan. The Meiji chef's knives, santoku and bread knife, and the Cumulus paring and chef's knives.

The Japan 100-Layer FC63 range, also Japanese made, in chef's, santoku, carving, bread, compact and paring.

Kolor ID, colour coded so a kitchen can keep boards and blades separated by food type, in chef's, granton edge, santoku, bread, boning and filleting.

Twin Master, the butchery line, which is the one to look at if you break down your own meat: boning stiff, flexible and wide, skinning, scimitar, butcher, carving and pastry.

Zwilling Pro alongside them. And beyond the knives, the Enfinigy kettle and wine opener, the BBQ+ tools and a slate platter.

Everything carries Zwilling's limited warranty against defects for as long as you own it. On the dishwasher they are more cautious than most brands, and worth quoting: “even for knives marked as dishwasher-safe, everything indicates that using the dishwasher is not a good idea”.