Aerial Cutlery Co.

[mickeyevans]

the first serious competitors to the Novelty and Canton Cutlery Co's in the picture handle market was this one.
started in 1909 in Minn, moved to Wisc in 1912. they were big until 1925 when they started to transition to barber supplies and stopped making knives in 1944, when they put the knives they had in storage, where they stayed for 30 years
In 1974 those knives hit the market which may account for the 'new' look of this 75 year old knife
I could not pass up this beautiful handled knife while waiting for a Aerial Picture knife
no sign of out gassing, same material (celluloid/Pyroxylin) as this Ulster, last photo at bottom

[timgreene48]

Wow! that's sweet!

[steve99f]

That Aerial just rocks! Beautifully made knives. I have one and looking for more, they rarely come up in the shape yours is in.

My red jack. Pics suck.

[cattaraugus57]

mickeyevans...that is an amazing example!

[djknife13]

I have two picture handle knives that I have found the family decendents of because of the name and other info on the pictures. Both had ties to people I know, and one I found 150 miles away from the town I live in. Makes a real adventure out of an old knife. The largest is a 5 1/2 inch coke and the first owner was from Finland, forced to teach markmanship to Russians in WW1, made it to Minn. after the war. His grandson grew up with a guy I drive to Mpls. each month to knife club meetings. Puts faces to some of my old knives.

[mickeyevans]

great history and story DJ, that is main reason I started this hobby/obsession/addiction
thanks Cat, I know I did good when I get a post like that, and the history of Cattaraugus and their knives is my favorite history/knives
with the Case and Platt family branchs, almost like the Bible stories of pocket knives
one of my few old Catt's just to show it again

[Miller Bro's]

Love the cell handles on the OP knife

[mickeyevans]

OP? never heard that, please fill me in MB

[royal0014]

OP? never heard that, please fill me in MB

It means 'original post'. . . ie, the first post in the thread

[mickeyevans]

learn something everyday here, thanks

[knife7knut]

Don't have any good pics of my picture handled Aerials but here are some of 3 Aerial letter opener knives with cel handles.A couple of unusual points about them:
I was always under the assumption that Aerial stopped making pocket knives in the 1930's and then had a bunch of them dumped on the knife collectors in the 1970's. One of these letter openers has advertising on it with a date of 1965.???????
Secondly one of them has the tang stamp affixed upside down from the normal.Also the stamps are slightly different which may indicate and earlier or later time or maybe they just used a different stamp.

[Miller Bro's]

I like that upside down tang stamp Ray

[mickeyevans]

Steve, that red cell Aerial is sweet, no shrinkage or deterioration to the handles, looks almost new

[flafos]

Here is a little Aerial display I got in a collection we purchased last year.

[djknife13]

Great buy. If that was part of the collection you bought, it must have been a really good purchase. ___Dave

[mrwatch]

knife7knut the bottom one with the blue shield is the Shriners logo.

[LongBlade]

That is an awesome Aerial Display Flafos ... and welcome aboard to AAPK ....

[tongueriver]

Fascinating thread. I have only one Aerial.

[gsmith7158]

Here's my only Ariel, a pen knife with long pulls on both blades and of course celluloid handles.

[flafos]

It was around 2600 knives if I remember correctly djknife13. There was a little bit of everything in there. I thought this was just too cool. I think there was a pearl auto in there too that we sold pretty quickly.

[New_Windsor_NY]

Recently, this pocket knife arrived in a group or lot of pocket knives that I purchased. It now becomes my first example to be posted under this topic or thread. I certainly did NOT purchase the group or lot of pocket knives to obtain this particular pocket knife. It is an AERIAL, two blades, two tang stamps, 3 1/4" closed, one spring, "picture handle" pocket knife. The main blade front tang stamp is definitely two lines, possible three lines. What remains of, and what I can still read on the main blade front tang stamp is, "? (over) CUTLERY Cᴏ̲ (over) ?" The secondary blade front tang stamp is the curved or arched style and says, "AERIAL CUT. SUP. CO. (over) DULUTH" The main handle side says, "Cane Giuseppe, - Mellen, Wis." If there were images or graphics on the other handle side, they are not there now. The main blade, I think it is a replacement, does not have a half stop and no opening or closing snap. The secondary blade also has no half stop and no opening or closing snap. This pocket knife has many issues. This pocket knife is in POOR condition. I'm only keeping it for the secondary blade tang stamp. It is isolated from ALL my other pocket knives in case it wants to get rid of some gas. I just wiped it off. I took some pictures and here it is.
Caption(s), if any, are on the BOTTOM of the corresponding picture(s).
Click on a picture to ENLARGE.