It's just so aggravating. I know that I keep harping on the legacy of "100% hand-crafted", "true craftsmanship", etc., but I consider this a slap in the face to those folks that worked at the Schrade plant in NY - people that spent mosto of their adult life making a quality product.
The fact that Taylor Cutlery simply bought the rights to the patterns, then off-shored the manufacturing, and now is marketing his holdings as Schrade is just gut wrenching to me. It shows no respect or honor to the ones that made the brand what it was/is.
It would have been one thing if he had bought the plant, machinery, etc. and attempted to continue the tradition - breathing life back into that huge void that was created when everyone left on the last day. That would have been the honorable thing to do. That way, he could have been credited with having respect for that 100 year-old heritage and restoring pride to the people who were cut off at the knees. Of course, it would not have been easy, but most things of value do not come easy. There are some things that you have to earn, one painful step at a time. But, instead, he chooses to do it the easy way. He shows up, writes a check for the patents, makes an overseas phone call to get production going, and viola', Schrade is reborn (at least in his eyes) a year later, adding further humility to the NY employees - truly a cold slap in the face.
If I'm wrong about all (or any) of this, someone please correct me. I certainly don't want to state any mis-truths. But I've seen stuff like this happen so many (too many) times in the recent years as US manufacturing gets pushed off-shore and people that I know and care about get laid off and left in dire financial situations when the only skill that they know gets replaced by foreign workers.
