Old Cutlery towns

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

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I'd like to see any cutlery towns/cities of note, with a little bit of information about the firms/factories they housed. For instance, Camillus and Olean in NY. Bradford, Tidioute and Titusville in PA. Seki Japan, Eskilstuna Sweden. I have always gathered enjoyment of reading Knife World and other articles about old cutlery towns. There are many in NY, PA, and some in RI. Others like Sheffield, Maniago, Solingen. Switzerland, France etc. For our international members, I would like to learn a little bit about your proud cutlery heritage through the big cutler towns.
 
Ok, I´m an international member - we have already had Solingen in Germany.

Another place in Germany where knives were made is Leegebruch, Germany.
Another place is in Czech Republik. The town is called Mikulášovice, Czech Republic. It was formaly known as "Bohemian Solingen".
Trattenbachtal in Austria - where the Trattenbacher Taschenzaunkerl is made.
Ibach, Switzerland, where Victorinoxes are made
Delemont, Switzerland where Wengers were/are made
and a small german manufactur is in "Zell am Hamersbach", the place where the Kneissler Messer are build

There might be some more - I should do more research :)
 
I think you've all read enough about Yorkshire lately! :D Nice thread idea, will look forward to reading the replies.
 
I think economies were much more localized in the mid 1800s in the US. Local mills. Local stores. Local clothiers. Local cutlers.

I had an ancestor, George W Mann, who had a knife and axe mill in a small village in northern Vermont. He established the mill in 1871. We still have a few of his kitchen knives in the family, stamped GW Mann.

When I read the history of larger cutlery firms and towns, like that of the Ellenville and Walden, NY area and I think of the all of the consolidations and buy outs that took place it reminds that:

a) The notion of "a corporation" as an on-going legal entity is a fairly new idea. When George Mann got out of knife making, either the company changed names to reflect his son's ownership or it went away.

b) Consolidation and growth are as much a factor of transportation and power infrastructure. As those infrastructures grew and stabilized, it made more and more sense to grow and consolidate.


Nice timeline of Ellenville and Walden here:
http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/articles/Schradehistory.pdf

Lots more good stuff here:
http://www.collectors-of-schrades-r.us/articles/articles.htm
 
Hey guys, here is some of my country's expert towns:
First of all TOLEDO, known since centuries ago for the quality of the steel on their swords. here is a link.

Of course we have ALBACETE also were they became very famous from the XVII century on. Around 1700 there was an edict by the king forbidding the carry and use of sword and dagger, and all around the south of Spain a fencing technique called Esgrima de Navaja was developed and mastered. after that, with the migration to SouthAmerica, local people adopted this knowledge, and that is where the Facón(large knife used by the Gauchos in Argentina and Brazil) fighting comes from, slightly modified with a piece of cloth(poncho) over the disarmmed arm.

sorry for the little offtopic, but I thought it may seem interesting for you to know a bit about other countries knife history.

Last but not least, we have several villages around the country where, contrasting with the sublime pieces from Toledo and Albacete mostly for the noble people, They were well known for the quality and keenness of the edges in their more humble peasant knives.
some examples could be TARAMUNDI or SOLSONA(in fact the aitor castor someone posted is a classic Solsones' design).
More recently ERMUA too, since is the home of Aitor.

Hope you enjoy this little piece of Spain from Spain.
Mateo
 
Please provide as much information as you can, if someone else already mentioned a town, and you have more information, tell us. Thanks to all that have replied. If you have any history of your country in particular, please enlighten us. This is purely selfish on my part, but I want to learn.

Also, don't just limit to companies, let's hear about makers too. Five hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, fifty years ago, or just five years ago.
 
Very interesting Mateo and an enjoyable read, thanks. A friend of mine brought a sword from Toledo he'd had made on the plane back to the UK a few years ago. Surprisingly it didn't present any problems at Customs! :)
 
Little Valley, NY is a big one. JBF Champlin and Son originated there, which later became Cattaraugus Cutlery. Charles Platts whom worked at Northfield Cut. then worked there at Cattaragus Cut. along with all of his sons. They later went on to start C. Platts & Sons as well as Platts Brothers Cut. Case Brothers was also started in Little Valley by W.R., Jean and John Case,whom were partners in Cattaraugus cutlery at one time. W.R.'s son who lived in the upstairs of the Cattaraugus cut. factory for a while as a child later went on to found W.R. Case and Son which later became W.R. Case and Sons when he joined up with H.N. Platts, son of C. Platts and son in-law of W.R. Case. H.N. then went on to found Western Cutlery out in Colorado after he was forced to move west due to "Grinders Consumption", a health condition cause by the use of sandstone grinders.
Theres probably more I'm forgetting but alot of cutlerys at the time had ties to Little Valley from one which way to another.
 
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Oh yeah, this is going to be good! In just eight posts I have already learned so much.

Great idea.
 
Humppa said:
Ok, I´m an international member - we have already had Solingen in Germany.

Another place in Germany where knives were made is Leegebruch, Germany.
Another place is in Czech Republik. The town is called Mikulášovice, Czech Republic. It was formaly known as "Bohemian Solingen".
Trattenbachtal in Austria - where the Trattenbacher Taschenzaunkerl is made.
Ibach, Switzerland, where Victorinoxes are made
Delemont, Switzerland where Wengers were/are made
and a small german manufactur is in "Zell am Hamersbach", the place where the Kneissler Messer are build

There might be some more - I should do more research :)
Click to expand...

Ok, now I´m going to quote my own post. That´s ok....

Leegebruch was the Solingen in Eastern Germany during socialism. They had pocketknives and even hunting knives. I don´t know exactely how many manufacturers were there. The factories nowadays are closed. But they are still available on fleamarkets etc. Much more, I don´t really know. But I could search through different german knife magazines about this time and get further information.

Mikulášovice is a place in CZ. Nowadays there are still knives made by small manufacturers. Their most famous pattern is a small single blade knife with aluminium handles in a fish-shape. Would be nice to add something like this to my collection ;)

About the Trattenbachtal, I wrote in this thread, completed with some history about the place and the knifemakers there http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...cher-Taschenfeitel-a-typical-Austrian-pattern

I think, I don´t need to write much about Wenger and Vic at all ;)

The Kneissler Messer (which is the manufacturer) makes some interessting designs. Mostly in horn handles and multibladed patterns. These knives are made for shepherds and farmers. They should not be very good in F&F, but they have some reputation here about their durability.

I hope, I could quote my post as well, as it is up with my knowledge...
 
Humppa said:
Mikulášovice is a place in CZ. Nowadays there are still knives made by small manufacturers. Their most famous pattern is a small single blade knife with aluminium handles in a fish-shape.
Click to expand...

Do you know, I'd completely forgotten, but I think I had one of those as a kid! I was fishing mad at the time and I really liked it! No idea what happened to it though I'm afraid Andi, it swam off many years ago :D

I don't know about other users, but personally I'd still be very interested to hear some Solingen tales :)
 
Always has great articles on such. June 2012 has one on "Naugatuck Area Cutlers" ,stating,"Historically there have been over 100 cutlery companies in the Connecticut River Valley"

That Magazine is a great source for info you seek.
 
In Italy besides Maniago I know of Scarperia, Frosolone and Pattada. In France there are at least Thiers, Nogent and Lagioule.
 
VCM3 said:
Always has great articles on such. June 2012 has one on "Naugatuck Area Cutlers" ,stating,"Historically there have been over 100 cutlery companies in the Connecticut River Valley"

That Magazine is a great source for info you seek.
Click to expand...

Reading their articles got me more interested in this subject.
 
There is Ontario which started in Naples NY and is now in Franklinville NY also there was Robeson in Perry NY.
 
Regarding Schrade: If I missed this in the timeline I apologize, but I'm fairly sure that, for a while in the Twentieth century, Schrade also had a factory in Middletown (Orange County, same as Walden) New York. Can anyone verify that?
 
I spend my fair share of spring and summer days fly fishing along the Nine Mile Creek, just south of the old home of Camillus Cutlery. it's about 10 miles from my home.

I miss knowing they were making knives behind those walls. According to the local news the building is being renovated into a medical center.

There's a pretty good history on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillus_Cutlery_Company. The only fact I see that might be suspect is that competition was the reason it closed. I'm sure that had a lot to do with it but, word around here is it was grossly mismanaged also. Take that for what it's worth ...
 
smiling-knife said:
Hi everyone. This is a link to an article about Sheffield in the 1880s that I scanned. The first 2/3 covers the City and the last 1/3 focuses on the cutlery industry. I hope it is of interest.

http://s138.beta.photobucket.com/us...ld 1884?&_suid=135247963693303738325357538085
Click to expand...

That looks absolutely fascinating S-K. I downloaded the images, but the their size was such that I couldn't enlarge them large enough to clearly read. Is there any possibility of posting images of a higher resolution please?
 
Oh sorry. I might be limited by the size of files I can upload to the host site. I'll try to scan in higher res and upload again. Won't be able to do this until Sunday though. Cheers.
 
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