An interesting thought

W

winchester73

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Jan 6, 2008
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Why can Canal Street Cutlery make it with the same President but closed for bankruptcy when Wally was president of Scrade and Canal Street knives are much more expensive. I'm sure there's lots to look at as to why but just wondering. Now this is in no way to disparage Wally. I've heard he is really a nice guy.
 
Gardiner did not own the company. He was not allowed to make the decisions during the latter days (after Albert passed away). The new owner hired outside consultants and turnaround specialists who turned money around in their pockets, but did little if anything to help the company recover. The new owner had the money, likely five times over, to bail out the company and turn it around had they had the interest. They did not. This was what I was told by several former employees who were in a position to see it and know.
 
Codger, it's good to hear from you. I thought you had holed-up somewhere till it got cooler. Or have I just been missing your posts.
Harold
 
Under those circustances it would have been nice if Gardiner and other Schrade employees had bought the property rights. Maybe we'd have USA Schrades today. But a wish is worth exactly nothing.
 
The problems the company was facing were, at that point, unsurmountable. The I.P. went for millions. A restart with nothing more than that would have been on a micro-scale, much like Canal Street. CSC owes it's success so far to their catering to an entirely different market with an smaller production force and product lineup.

When you sift through all the debris and angst, and get tired of pointing fingers, the one main cause for the failure of that company in it's 100th year was that there was no Albert Baer at the helm.

The same could be said for Camillus, IMHO. As long as he was alive, the families of his daughters, Marjorie and Betsy, to whom he had given the ownership of Camillus, followed his suggestions for the most part and kept their hands out of the kitty. Phil Gibbs can correct me in this if I am wrong.

But the fact remains that Albert did not train a successor and crown him with the power to drive the Imperial Schrade company forward. What Albert brought to the table was the experience of being in the industry from 1922 until his death in 1997.

He was a genius at "the deal". He knew the cutlery business as well, if not better, than any man alive. And more importantly, he knew his customers, what they wanted and how to keep them coming back.

"Not only did he still have his marbles, he had everyone else's..."

Bernard Levine refering to his interview with Albert Baer
Click to expand...
 
Well said Michael!
I think you hit the nail square on the head.

Albert knew more than how to run a business, he knew how to make it thrive. He had a passion for what he did.
The combination of his business acumen, understanding of people and passion for his company made him THE knife man of the last half of the 20th Century.

Sometimes that combination can be instilled into a child who grows up in the business and works alongside their father, but that seems to be the exception, not the rule.

Dale
 
Well, I wondered what happened. I have always been a Schrade (& Ruger) man. Now I have more understanding of what happened.
 
Michael,

You referenced an interview in one of your above posts between Mr. Levine and Mr. Baer. Is there a link available to that interview? I would sure like to give it a read. Thanks!

Chuck
 
There were many. many factors that came together like the proverbial "perfect storm" which had a cumulitive effect. Pointing to any one of these factors (or people) and saying "Ahah! I found it!" is in my opinion a mistake. Perhaps one day this book will be written and published.

What I stated above was the greatly condensed version. The full, unabridged version would take a large book to explain. One would have to go all the way back to the turn of the previous century and examine cutlery history from that point forward to at least 2004, if not the present day, to get a true overall understanding of how Imperial Schrade came to be, and came to not be. Perhaps one day this book will be written and published.
 
I have a copy of Bernie's interview which he said I could publish but I have not heard from the original publisher.. Maybe I'll just put it up.
 
I believe that would come under the fair use doctrine after all of this time, don't you? When was it published?
 
Nice read alright, wow!
 
lrv said:
Feb 1992. Nice read

http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/articles/Albert-M-Baer-KW-02-92.pdf
Click to expand...

Indeed it is. It has been a few years since I had read it. Several details I had forgotten reminded me of information from my own subsequent research.

It wasn't Adolph Kastor who was the Baer's grandfather's partner in Bodenheim, Meyer and Kastor, but Adolph's uncle Aaron Kastor, who sponsored Adolph's immigration from Wattenheim, Germany. Uncle Aaron, after BM&K folded, gave Adolph a letter of credit and helped him begin importing knives from England and Germany, which led Adolph's other brothers, Sigmund, August and Nathan to also immigrate from Germany and join him in A. Kastor & Bros. which bought Camillus.

An oddity found in the research? Henry B. Baer was born Henry Aaron Baer. When and why he changed his name to Henry Bodenheim Baer is anyone's guess.

Another genealogy oddity? The Baer brothers' father was Max Baer. Google that one!

Oh, and somewhere in the Pacific rests a motherlode. A shipment of 10,000 Ulster smatchetts lost during a WWII shipment by submarine to the Philippines. :eek:

I wish I had been able to meet Albert. I might have walked away without my shirt and shoes, but I would have enjoyed the meeting. :D
 
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