Puma is one of the oldest makers in Europe. In Germany, they still make every blade by hand. The grinding, finishing, handles, etc, is all done by hand. They also individually test the rockwell hardness of each blade and the mark is on the blade, near the hilt, to prove it.
They do have another line that is outsourced to South American production and prices reflect that. They are considerably cheaper than the german made knives.
Almost all of their knives are 440C high carbon stainless or 1.4116 stainless (also known as Krupp 416). Krupp is the same steel used in several knives by Cold Steel now, and it's also the same steel that's used by Wenger/Victorinox in the Swiss Army line of knives, as well as the Forschner kitchen/processing knives.
I've had a couple of Puma knives and they are very nice blades. The craftsmanship is second to none. Both knives that I had were Krupp steel, not 440C. I'd like to try a couple of 440C blades from them to see how much better they perform. The Krupp will easily take a razor's edge, and it's really easy to touch it up, but the edges work life is short. I had to continually touch them up while processing deer. Of course, most professional processors prefer a durable knife blade that they can touch up with a couple swipes on steel, VS one that holds it's edge longer but isn't as easy to touch-up.
What works against Puma, IMO, is their pricing in the USA. For what you pay for the premium line of knives, you can get a semi-custom or custom knife from any number of smaller makers that will be just as nice or nicer, out of a better steel than the Krupp, for maybe $50 more than the Puma, depending on the model.
They are pretty knives and would be fun to collect, as they are would be great show pieces as well as users.
There are a couple of neat videos on youtube that show several European Knife companies factories.
