Imperial Knife Company

The Imperial Knife Company was founded in 1916 by Felix & Michael Mirando who were immigrants from Itally. The original home of the company was in Providence, Rhode Island. Both Felix & Michael started in the US knife business as employees of the Empire Knife Company located in Winsted Connecticut. The Imperial Knife Company eventually grew to become the largest knife manufacturer in the United States. They were a high volume manufacturer with a knack of creating efficiencies in the manufacturing process to create good quality products at affordable prices.

When military knives became high demand products for WWII, Imperial merged with Ulster & focussed on manufacturing military knives. Albert M. & Henry Baer were heavily involved in the consolidation & the Baers would eventually buy & merge Imperial with Schrade & others. The Imperial brand name continued to exist until 1988, when they were discontinued and replaced by the Schrade name.

Below, you will find a few links to more interesting Imperial related information & resources.