Here's a brief history, information gatherned and condensed from Goins.
Walden was started in 1870 by former employees of New York Knife Co disgruntled by their management. They left NYK and started the Walden Co-operative Knife Company with 18 employees. The Co-op didn't work out, but by 1881 with new management the company grew to 125 workers. The company continued to grow over the coming years, partially due to their production of automatic knives for George Schrade and the Press Button Knife Company, and by 1911 it had the largest output of knives in the world at the time. E.C. Simmons took control of the company in 1911 when they bought the controlling interest. The company produced their knives until 1922 when Simmons merged with Winchester, who then briefly took control until September of 1923 when the factory was sold to Schrade and the machinery was moved to New Haven, CT to Winchesters new plant where it was used to produce their knives, many of which were nearly identical to the preceding Waldens.
Here's my recent find which inspired the post, a tiny 2 1/2 inch pen.
Lets see your Walden knives and memorabilia!
of a collection, Eric!!
