I've tried to hold my tongue, but someone really needs to point out that the correct spelling for the famed cutlery city in the Ruhr is "Solingen", not "Soligen."

Many knife companies are located there and they use a variety of steels, some probably made there, some maybe elsewhere.

As always, go with the brand and its reputation, not just by the city of manufacture. Puma and Carl Schlieper (Eye Brand) are my favorites, but Linder, Boker (NOT "Booker" ) and others make good knives in Solingen. Ed. Wusthof and Henckels are the primary makers of high grade kitchen knives. I have a Henckels Inernational chef's knife made in China but they say they use German steel, and the quality is high. It seems on par with my German-made Henckels knives.

NOTE: The famed Twins logo for Henckels International has only one stylized human figure on the blade, not the Twins of the Solingen-made knives. ("Zwillingswerk" means "Twin works", the figures representing the astrological sign of Gemini.)

I have one GEC knife and one from Canal Street. Both are touted as premium knives, GEC mentioned in this topic. Neither is any better than my Puma and Carl Schlieper knives and the GEC has grind marks near one blade tang that are unacceptable in a premium priced knife.

I have a couple of Case knives and some genuine (US-made) Schrade Uncle Henrys that are very good value and nice knives. I have not tried the Chinese-made "Schrades" made by the new owner of that once famous US brand. Apart from the brush polish on the blades, the original Uncle Henry line are really good knives.

Be aware that some company has now also bought the Camillus brand. The genuine Camillus knives were very solid values and good knives, some actually being very well made.

Victorinox is the best knife value, I think, and has infinite variety in tools. But I'd look for an older Puma or Schlieper if I wanted a premium grade pocketknife at a reasonable price. Puma is getting pricey and collectible, though. I have a Stockman and a Model 943 lockblade hunter from Puma and one of their Buck 110-like folders. All are well made. (The current Model 943 has a different blade design. That line seems to be using main blades more like the old Model 959, I suppose for production economy.)

In "tactical" folders, I lean toward Benchmade and the Gerber Applegate-Fairbairn lines.