The 5 German Scissor Brands to Know

One city, five names

Germany’s professional scissor trade concentrates in a single place. Solingen, the City of Blades in North Rhine-Westphalia, has forged cutting tools for more than 600 years, and four of the five German brands catalogued on this site are rooted there. This list runs in the order each brand’s own page dates it: TONDEO first at 1928, Jaguar at 1932, then Cerena, whose page dates its second-generation handover to 1999. EKS and Nic publish no founding year, so they close the list. No other sorting, no scores.

One more thing makes this list different from our Japanese top ten: it is complete. Every German brand with a ScissorPedia page is here, so what follows is the whole catalogued German field, not a selection from it.

What Made in Solingen means in law

The phrase on the blade is a legal claim. German law protects the Solingen designation, and only products genuinely manufactured within the city limits can carry it. All essential production steps must happen locally: forging, heat treatment, grinding, and assembly. The city monitors compliance, which is why the mark works as a buying signal rather than a slogan. TONDEO’s flagship goes one layer deeper into that history and carries Me Fecit Solingen, the quality seal engraved on the city’s swords and rapiers in the medieval period.

The two century houses

1. TONDEO (founded 1928). TONDEO has built shears in Solingen since 1928 and occupies the technology end of the city’s trade. Its CONBLADE geometry is CNC machined to fine tolerances before Solingen craftsmen finish each pair, by the company’s account, and its Ball-Gliding screw is designed to cut friction at the pivot. The 23 catalogued models run 5.0 to 7.0 inches in Niolox, vanadium steel, and layered Damascus, at guide prices from $100 to $1,799. The THOR DAMAST tops the range and carries the medieval Me Fecit Solingen seal.

2. Jaguar (1932). Jaguar joined the city four years later and became its volume house: about 3,000 pairs leave the Solingen factory each day, every one passing more than 120 production steps. Friodur ice hardening, the sub-zero treatment the company pioneered, runs through the whole range. The 126 catalogued models form the deepest German line on this site, from the $65 Pre Style Comfort Pro to $812, in SOLINOX54, SOLINOX58, Micro Carbide, and VG-10 Cobalt steels, with five left-handed models and nine sets among them. Jaguar and TONDEO run as separate lines under United Salon Technologies, part of Certina Holding since 2021.

The family firm and the specialists

3. Cerena (second generation since 1999). Cerena says roughly 80 percent of each shear’s production is handwork, with a pair passing through as many as 120 steps between hot-forged blank and finished tool. Founder Fritz-Werner Kreitzberg passed the firm to his son Arne in 1999, and it remains family run in Solingen, exporting to more than 30 countries. The 18 catalogued models span 4.5 to 7.5 inches at guide prices of $53 to $418, which makes the Cobra the cheapest catalogued route into a Solingen-made pair, and the Sahara alone is catalogued in eight lengths.

4. EKS. Two lines make up the EKS hairdressing offer from Solingen, Classic Satin and Chiroform, the latter finished in Satin or Cerise, joined by thinning and texturising scissors in several tooth counts and a left-handed Classic Satin build. Most of its instruments are produced and controlled in Germany, by the company’s account. No EKS models are catalogued with prices here yet, so for per-model specifications the authoritative source is the maker’s own catalogue at eks-solingen.de.

5. Nic. Nic’s catalogue pairs many designs in two metals; the WX series, for one, exists in both a cobalt and a stainless build, with cobalt chosen for hardness and edge life. The full range covers eleven cutting series, P1 and P55 thinners, and a Dry series for dry work, of which four models are catalogued here at guide prices from $549 to $999 in 5.0 to 6.5 inch lengths. Shear World and Tricut stock the line.

The five side by side

German blades, German sharpening

A Solingen pair asks for different aftercare than a Seki pair, and knowing why saves an edge. German blades carry the Konvex-Schliff convex grind, maintained by belt or wheel sharpening; Japanese blades carry the hamaguri clamshell grind, worked by hand on water-cooled stones. The methods are not interchangeable, and applying one to the other alters the geometry permanently. Steel choice follows the same split: Solingen typically works mid-hardness steels around 54 to 60 HRC, against the 58 to 65 common in Seki City. The German recipe trades a little edge-retention headroom for durability under rough handling and easy maintenance with standard European sharpening. Stylists who run pairs from both traditions need a sharpener trained in both methods, or two sharpeners.

Where to start

Entry money goes further here than the Solingen name suggests: the Cerena Cobra opens at $53 and Jaguar’s Pre Style tier at $65, both city-made. Jaguar’s 126-model catalogue then covers nearly every working budget up to $812, while TONDEO holds the engineering showcase tier, Niolox and Damascus builds that peak at $1,799. EKS and Nic round out the field for stylists who want German construction outside the two big houses. For how the German recipe compares with the Japanese one in hand, read the Japanese vs German guide, and for the city’s history behind the legal mark, the Solingen heritage guide goes deep.