Their site needs an update

Codger_64

Moderator
Joined
Oct 8, 2004
Messages
61,660
The schrade site is still online, and you can still send in an employment application. I didn't know they had a 70 employee operation overseas. Wonder what will become of that? I certainly wish they had gone to the trouble to do a knife model production archive on line, maybe even a virtual tour of the collection. Little late to wish for that, though.

Visiting the site is a little like reading your deceased Uncle's mail. You can almost hear your footsteps echo in the empty plant, though I guess today there is quite a crowd there. If there is really an auction, that is.

Wonder if they have a skid of unused 165 Deerhunter blanks. Maybe a bin of Sambar stag. Bet there are several bins of 100th aniversary inlays. Who knows how many prototypes laying around in machinists cabinets.

The owners of the machine shop where I work winters will be bidding on bar and rod stock, maybe some smaller CNC's. If it is auctioned. Maybe it will be bought in it's entirity and become Smokey Schrade Cutlery, instead of becoming container ship cargo bound for the orient. Or Pakistan.

Excuse my rainy day musing here.... there are times when I wish I were wealthy and could persue a very expensive hobby, like buying a knife factory just for the continuing tax writeoff. Heck, I could start my own custom knife series prototyped by the best custom makers out there. Real natural material scales, carbon and damascus steels, and of course, a line of Uncle Albert knives for the everyman. Revive and reissue some classic old patterns too. Rainy day musings of an old country boy seemingly stuck in the past.

Only........ heck, I don't even play the lottery. Just have to content myself with my Old Timers and Uncle Henry's and plan to hand them down to my children and grandchildren so they can see the timeless quality an old timer like me appreciates.

Codger
 
Isn't that awful? I sent them a nasty e-mail about their website. It even has a link to the 100th anniversary knives, and a link called "Schrade Life" in which they gush about the beauty of the Hudson Valley and how their employees use the products they make. PATHETIC!!!

It was Schrade's demise that rekindled my interest in knives (since I live about 30-40 min from the plant), and led me to this forum. I bought a 140 OT a few years ago, and am glad I did.

They claim that stricter regulations after 9/11 contributed to their closing. Why then are the likes of Camillus, Buck, Emerson, Spyderco, Benchmade, Cold Steel, etc, etc, selling like hotcakes?

Goddam inept management. :mad:
 
The hudson valley does kick ass.

The employees all own and swear by Schrade knives.

FWIW, I was not allowed to change the site for various legal and strategic reasons.

Emails sent to schrade went unanswered because there is simply noone here to answer them...

--SWG
 
I'll drink to that, Steve!!! Unfortunately, when the website does get updated, it will not be updated for the better, unless they announce they are reopening. The Hudson Valley is quite a beautiful place to see, and the people who work there are among the most talented production people you will find anywhere. They are exactly how the company survived 100 years, through both World Wars and the Great Depression. The unanswered e-mails are only because there is no one there to answer them, and with an average of 1,000 e-mails at any given time, there is no way that one person could reply in a way that would make everyone happy. Believe me guys...it is not because no one cares...it is because no one is left. You hit the nail on the head when you said "Inept Management!".
 
I wouldn't go so far as to call it pathetic. Sad maybe. SWG's explanation is what I had surmised.

I went through a similar employment situation a few years back. First, there was a RIF, a reduction in the workforce, mostly hourly workers. The workforce was augmented by giving additional duties to salaried workers. I was chief production engineer and had to assume the responsibilities of the engineering technicians, who were treated shabbily until the quit one by one. Not only did I have to design the assembly process, the production line, buy the equipment, get it installed, acquire the subcomponents and train the production workers, but I had to hand build all preprototypes, prototypes, and and program launch orders. When a new mold was installed, I had to work a 24 hour shift (no extra pay, thank you!), and handle all communication with the customer, our sales managers in Detroit, and the assembly plants in Mexico.

I watched while all my efforts went down the tubes as Corporate decisions caused molding machines the size of a locomotive to be unanchored and prepared for shipment with the molds to other plants. Miles of overhead conveyors were stripped out and shipped out to the new plants along with the production orders and all my engineering notes and Cad files.

I finally came to the conclusion that these Corporate decisions were above my pay scale and tried not to object or whimper as I watched my babies being loaded on semi's bound North and South.

Then the hidden edict came down from on high to RIF salaried management. Rather than pink slip us, they resorted to their now familiar ploy of piling on the work to make us quit... i.e. no unemployment benifits and a dead end to our insurance, profit sharing, etc.

My own exit came when my workweek, originally 50 hours, went to well over a hundred. My salary at that point figured out to a few cents less than I could make at McDonalds. RIF's continued, and production work and equipment shifted to other "more profitable" locations til only a skeleton crew remained at that plant doing second process work on subassemblies.
A lively small southern town dried up and seven hundred or so people became unemployed. A few "lucky" souls (those who participated in the corporate screwing of the little people) accepted transfers to the other plants. I still have my company t-shirt proclaiming me to be a valuable company asset!

Ooops! Another rainy day here in the south! Can you tell?

Codger

I would assume that at Schrade, the lower management continued to be world class, comprised of mostly craftsmen (and craftswomen) who had paid their dues and proven leadership and organizational skills.

The faults of closure were most likely at the top of the food chain where supposedly higher intellegence exists.

I will continue to own and use Schrade knives exclusively as did my father and his father, and will pass them on to my five kids and five grandkids like my father before me. Again, a personal thanks from me to the Craftspersons at Schrade for a job well done!
 
Now that is a classy, well-presented assumption, and not so far from a bullseye. Sorry to hear that the reason you understand is through experience.
 
Oh SchradeWebGuy,
Didn't you also forget a few pictures? :)

TTYL
Larry
 
Thanks Steve. I think I forgot Paperport too, unless it's all on one cd. Are you gonna be there tomorrow, or are you starting tomorrow?
 
Sorry for the pissed-off-ed-ness of my post, but I just thought it was very bad timing to close up shop right on the company's 100th anniversary, and kick everyone out with no buyout/severance or benefits. But such is life.

I've been living here for 15 years, and have worked at IBM East Fishkill the whole time. We went thru a massive downsizing in '93, and I was lucky enough not to experience the same fate. I think the Hudson Valley is great - so many places to go and things to do. How about that Garlic Festival in Saugerties? I still have a jar of garlic jelly in the fridge (it's good, really!)

BTW, i love my 140OT, with its Schrade+ blade, double blood grooves and big green handle that fits my hand perfectly. I'll have to check the local hardware stores, or maybe a gun show in Poughkeepsie or Newburg to see if I can get my hands on some more.
 
garlic.

and Mums,
and pickles,
and pumpkins
and Octoberfest up at Tannersville,
and the burning of kingston,
and the Surival of the Gunks
and the Hudson valley triathlon.

of what were we talking about? ;)

deb yup I will be here and IRV yes I did in fact forget them. uhhh. later today?
 
Thanks Steve. See ya later. Warbird, you are absolutely right. The 100th anniversary was a really bad time to have closed the doors, but I guess there was no good time. I do wish everyone from Schrade the best. Hudson Valley is pretty rich in beauty and history, but the Ulster County side of it is not so rich in employment, paychecks and affordable homes.
 
Passed through Ellenville yesterday. There was the street sign "Schrade Road", and below it a sign "Auction". Thought of taking a picture of it but it was too depressing.
 
Back
Top