So Who was "Uncle Henry"? (Ping UHFan)

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Oct 18, 2004
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Enquiring minds want to know: Who were "Uncle Henry"'s named after? :confused:

Dorthy's Uncle in the Wizard of Oz? (figured I'd beat someone to the punchline with that one).

:)
 
I know this one!!!

I'll let LT and Debbie fill you in as I believe they have both met the man.

TTYL
Larry
 
Not to hijack the thread but maybe get some more information on the famous brothers...

As far as I know there were never any Uncle Albert, Uncle J.Louis or Uncle William knives though they were involved in the business, I think I read somewhere that two of the brothers (Albert and Henry ?) are in the cutlery Hall of Fame, assuming there is one.

I´ve wondered if J.Louis stands for Joseph Louis, in Spanish the equivalent José Luis is very very common.

Luis
 
Joe, Louis and George Schrade founded Schrade Cut. Co. in 1904. (There is a lot of confusion about these names too. In some places, we see J. Louis, George and William, and in other places we see Joe, Louis and George with another Brother, William helping out at another plant. Even after speaking to some of the remaining original Schrade family, no one is really able to verify) Albert and Henry Baer purchased it from them in 1946 and renamed it Schrade Walden Cutlery Corp. Albert was one of the most brilliant businessmen that ever hit the cutlery industry. He travelled all over the world making affiliations and all of the U.S. personally selling Schrade knives to Hardware chains and individual store owners. He was actually the first businessmen to realize the benefit of a traveling salesman, rather than staying in one place and selling from there. He was an amazing man. Even during the War, he managed to get himselft hired into the Office of the Quartermaster General in Washington DC, so that he could be the one responsible for setting the standards for military bid projects. Very impressive. From there, all of the military standards that he set were those specific to Schrade machinery and specialty. The guy was a genius. His Brother, Henry Baer, was the GM for the manufacturing plant, and he was as great with people as Albert was with business. Uncle Henry knew everyone in his factory on a first name basis. He had these big, rosey cheeks, and he was always walking up to the workers, calling them all by name, shaking their hands, patting them on the backs, telling them funny stories (he had lots of them), and just making the factory feel like one big happy family. There was only one signature line of Schrade knives named after someone, and that was the Uncle Henry line. Not to sell him short, because he also had a brilliant mind, when it came to different knife ideas. That is the reason that both Albert and Henry Baer were both inducted into the Cutlery Hall of Fame, which is a very real title. I think the "Hall" itself exists within "Blade" or "Knife World" magazine, but it does exist.
 
Very interesting, I had read somewhere (some European book in Spanish probably) that there were the Schrade brothers first and the Baer brothers later, I thought there were more Baers, and have heard that the family is still strong in the cutlery business.

Thanks much for the info.

Luis
 
Actually both Albert and Henry have passed away. Mrs. Albert Baer inherited it, but she had no interest. That's part of the reason, it ended up where it is today. I do believe that the Baer family, possibly grandchildren, are affiliated with Camillus, but I don't have any details, but I heard that Camillus is struggling to keep their heads above water now too.
 
Ive heard the same about camillus from a distributor. Its a shame. All these "knock offs" made overseas are destroying the american cutlery business as we know it. If you do not think so, then keep on buying the "made off shore" products and see what happens in the future. Its a shame. No one would have ever thought a large, strong company like schrade could be hurt by overseas production, but look what happened!!! They were once the largest cutlery business in the USA and now smoky is selling a cheap made truck with a cliphanger with a padlock etch in the back of it!! Not a fitting end to a highly respected name.

http://www.eknifeworks.com/webapp/e...Mode=Brand&Brand=96&PriceStart=&SKU=SCCH14STB
 
Absolutely, and the really sad part is that it's a powerful American company that's paving the road for overseas product to put all of these big manufacturers out of business (Walmart). As long as they keep buying overseas and demanding that American companies meet or beat those prices with a 1-day ship date, there is no way that American-made can survive. It's a real shame. Prices at Walmart really are good prices, but whenever possible, I try real hard to find somewhere else that I can afford. Can't blame anybody though for buying Schrade in Walmart right now. No matter where you buy them, they are all collectible.
 
I remember before Sam Walton died and his family took over, there were American flags hung over every isle with a "Buy American" logo. It was only for a brief period though. The "Marting of America" has been a success story, albeit one with it's share of sad tales.

Mom and Pop stores in small towns cannot compete, and Mom and Pop wind up as low wage greeters at Walmart. Many manufacturers have taken large lucritive contracts to supply them, built larger factories, tooled up, hired and trained workers, only to loose the contract on the next renewal.

I found out in the seventies I could not compete with their prices on pool chemicals. All I could tell my customers was that they should take a water sample with them to Walmart and have the girl in customer service analyze it for them and tell them how to balance their water chemicals!
 
Wal-mart was somewhat a "class act" at one time before sam died. He lived near conway Arkansas drove an old truck and wore overalls! His kids? Well it was a sad day, the day he died. Youc an see the results of the children taking over. Now it seems to be all about money, really sad. I remember the day he died I was in the jacksonville Arkansas wal-mart when they announced it. Sam's father-in-law was the owner of woolworths, if I remember correctly, where is woolworth's now? (gone under).

I try to stay away from wally world these days if I can, but it is not always so. Some things I will still buy there (if I have too).
 
It wasn't just hard...it was pretty much impossible. We would receive orders from Walmart for hundreds of thousands of knives with a 2- or 3-day ship date. Because the banks didn't allow us to keep a large number of finished knives in stock (overhead), a few hundred employees had to bust hump to fill these orders as much as possible, but if it didn't ship by their ship date, Walmart cancelled. That was the reason why 1) quality started to seem not so good toward the end (QC was forced to pass knives that would never have passed a couple of years ago) and 2) China had to become a part of the answer. Between the banks and Walmart, we were pretty much squeezed right out of business. I have a feeling good things are in the wind though. I'm hearing good things about great people who worked for Schrade...stay tuned. Could be interesting.
 
I thought that with our name change, it might be a good time to revive this oldere thread from last November. More than just giving us the names of the original Schrade brothers, it reminds us of the history of Imperial Schrade and the people who piloted the ship for so many years. How many of the actual cutlers were brothers, and sons of cutlers we will never know. I am only personally aware of the two brothers who were sample makers there in the seventies, but I would bet it was a generational occupation for many families.

Codger
 
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