America's "Little Sheffield"

[KAW]

....that is what Walden, NY was called a century ago, and at its peak supplied nearly half the knives sold in this country. Extend the scope just 20 miles to the northwest & one can include another pocket of knife legacies. Together they form a history that goes back as far as 1856 to the near present of 2015. This thread does overlaps many already existing threads since most cover a single brand, but there are way too many in this richly concentrated knife manufacturing locale to keep track of posting so many different threads & forums.

This thread has the potential of becoming the central depository of their intertwined history & photos of the knives of Walden & the Wawarsing area. This would include (but not exclusive to):

[New York Knife Co.] [Electric Knife Co.] [Wallkill River Works] [Walden Knife Co.] [Keen Kutter / E.C. Simmons] [Schrade Cutlery Co.]
[Schrade Walden] [Schrade Cutlery Corp.] [Imperial Schrade] [ Ulster Knife Co.] [Ulster (div. Imperial Knife)] [Kingston Cutlery Co.]
[Honk Falls Knife Co.] [Napanoch Knife Co.] [John B. Russell Knife Works] [Humphrey Knife Factory] [Canal Street Cutlery]

Come one.... come all and join me in this endeavor to gather the greatest collection of photos & history on America's "Little Sheffield"

[KAW]

I guess I'll start it off and it would be only logically to start off with the first manufacturer to arrive in Walden in 1856.... New York Knife Co.

A classic looking bare end 3½" jack with bone handles, steel liners, no shield, a crimped bolster at the blade end.... despite the rough looking edge on those blades, they are still impressively sharp! I've been striving to obtain a 19th century knife.... don't know if this baby gets me over that threshold or not?

[KAW]

Here's another NYK.... a totally different style this time....
Its 3¼" closed with 3610 stamped on the back of the main clip blade & green "pearl" celluloid handle.
Despite the risks of celluloid, it does make for really attractive handles! Despite how it looks now, by the pitting on the blades & backsprings, one can tell it was once very neglected before someone took the trouble of restoring it by polishing the heck out of it, but I am truly grateful to whoever did it. They managed to save a fine artifact of history!

I first thought it to be a serpentine stockman pattern, but I just noticed the pen blade is at the other end!
Oh... One thing I noticed about the construction of this knife that I have not seen before is the center brass liner tapers to nothing before reaching the main blade allowing the two backsprings to contact each other under the clip blade, thereby making that end narrower than the other.
This pattern must be called something.... did only NYC make knives in this fashion?.... is it rare?.... an inquiring mind wants to know....

[kootenay joe]

The green celluloid handled knife is a whittler pattern: 3 blades, 2 springs, master blade bears on both springs.
Welcome to AAPK.
kj

[supratentorial]

In old catalogs, it was sometimes called "junior premium stock knife". I think KJ is also correct that it is a whittler. That's a collector term for the type of construction.

NYKCo was not the only company that made some of their stock knives with this construction. Another example is Remington.

This pattern of celluloid covers was called "shell". "Greenshell" in this case. I agree that it's really pretty stuff.

You can preserve a knife by wiping down the blades with a rag damp with mineral oil until the blades no longer dirty the rag. Buffing the knife removes metal. Buffing is refinishing rather than preserving.

Further rust can be prevented by a thin layer of oil and good storage. But decomposing celluloid covers could still cause damage to a preserved or refinished knife.

hammer-3610.jpeg (51.99 KiB) Viewed 9221 times

[kootenay joe]

st, thank you for this information about NYK Co stockman-whittler pattern. I did not know any of this.
kj

[danno50]

Here is a link to the thread, started by Dimitri, on vintage whittler knives.

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=36064&hilit=whittlers#p339053

There have been many discussions on this forum concerning whittlers. After half an hour of searching, I could not find the one I was looking for. One of the comments in it was that "whittler is not a pattern, it is a blade configuration". Apologies to whoever I am quoting here, I can't remember who it was or find the thread. I tend to agree with this this statement, most any pattern can be made with a whittler blade configuration.
Dan

[FRJ]

Very nice knives KAW, and welcome here.
And a good thread giving acknowledgement to this huge cutlery producing area.

Here are some knives from your list. In two parts .......

New York Knife ... Electric Knife Co. ... Wallkill River Works ... Walden Knife Co. ... Keen Kutter/Simmons ... Schrade Cut. Co. ...
Schrade Walden ... Ulster Knife Co. ... Kingston Cutlery Co. ... Canal Street Cutlery.

I don't have a Honk Falls --- I don't have a Napanoch either

[FRJ]

part two ..........

Thanks for looking.

[Duffer]

Those are some wonderful vintage folders KAW and Joe Joe I liked your JOE avatar! Jake thanks for some additional great insights! Dan I agree with your Whittler analysis. Whittler or split back Whittler is a style of construction configuration that can be utilized or adapted to any three blade (one blade on front pivot and two blades on rear pivot) folder pattern. There was an equal end Cattle knife with punch shown here on AAPK recently that was constructed in the split back Whittler fashion.

[FRJ]

Thank you very much, Lloyd.

[KAW]

Wow!!... what a GREAT amount of activity in response! My inspiration for this thread came from a ten year old thread on the BladesForum board that I have been trying to revive, but got a whole new definition of "deadbeat" response, so I figure I would attempt it here & what a wonderful amount of interest in such a short amount of time....

kj > Thanks for the welcome.

supratentorial > Thanks so much for sharing that info on the 3610. Just the kind of info I was looking for....
Do you know what year the catalog was printed from which your inset is from?.... would be nice to get a gist on when that knife was offered.

YES! I got myself a whittler & did even realize it! Check that off the list.

Dan & Lloyd, thanks for dropping by....

Joe > Wow... what a collection of wonderful examples you have there!
Some unusual ones too. Tell me some more about the one at the top of your second post.... are those some heavily worn out blades or altered for a specific purpose, or are they the blade patterns as designed? Never anything like that before....

Underneath that, is one I recognize very well.... as it looks just like my EDC K−horn. One of my favorite knives.

Well, I better get back to posting mine as Joe just took a giant leap ahead of me....

[KAW]

Next up…. in 1903, Tom Brady Jr., owner of New York Knife Co. sells out to the Fuller Brothers, owners of the Electric Cutlery Co. of Newark, N.J. (est.1889). Knives stamped “Electric Cutlery Co. / Walden” become an additional product line made along side the Hammer Brand. The Newark, NJ factory is shutdown in 1910 and the Fuller Bros. continued running NYKC until it went bankrupt and shutdown for good in 1931.

This slimline knife is of a more unusual style (don’t know the name of it if there is one) with candy stripped celluloid covers.
Does anyone have more info about this kind of knife?

[supratentorial]

I'm happy that it was helpful. Nice knives, guys

Hi Lloyd. Good to see you here!

That NYKCo catalog cut was from 1925. I also have examples from '24 and '27. Those are all exact matches. I have earlier examples of the knife with bone covers. They also made the junior size with different blades as well as different covers. And they also made larger stock knives with the same construction. I had one with the greenshell covers that was 3 7/8" closed and had a punch in place of the pen blade.

[danno50]

Great knives KAW, very interesting celluloid on the Electric! Beautiful batch of old knives, Joe! I apologize for my earlier, too far, digression.
Dan

[Duffer]

Here are three of my favorite NYKC Ebony handled Jacks. Top one is a curved Jack (HSB & Co. marked but made by NYKC) with a primary spey blade and spear behind. Middle is a capped Jack with etch still visible. Last is a Coke bottle with a saber blade spear.

[FRJ]

Oh boy, those are beautiful knives, Lloyd. Love that Ebony.

[KAW]

Joe > Wow... what a collection of wonderful examples you have there!
Some unusual ones too. Tell me some more about the one at the top of your second post.... are those some heavily worn out blades or altered for a specific purpose, or are they the blade patterns as designed? Never anything like that before....

Joe.... still sittin' on the edge of my seat to hear the story about this one....

Lloyd.... I got a special place in my heart for those ebony beauties.... but most of mine are Ulsters....

[danno50]

Three fantastic knives, Lloyd! That HSB&Co is really special and very nice to still have visible etch on the Hammer Brand. Interesting that all three have the same shield. I am very partial to ebony handled knives.
Dan

[FRJ]

Well, I don't really have a story.
That's just a plastic Schrade Cut. Co. Farmers Jack with a well worn main blade. The other blade is specific to horticulture.
It's 4 1/8" closed and full of brass. I can't add much beyond that except I'm glad you like it.
It's a neat old work knife.

There are lots of Farmers Jacks on the forum if you search them out.
They are some of the most beautiful knives and if you find them you will soon realize why I am not so excited about mine.

[Berryb]

wow really nice knives. A Question though; Why Walden? Thanks
Bruce

[danno50]

wow really nice knives. A Question though; Why Walden? Thanks
Bruce

I believe KAW explained this pretty well in the first post.

Below are: 2 Walden made Schrades, a NYKC Hammer Brand, a Wallkill River Knife Works, an Electric Cutlery Co, and an Ellenville made Dwight Devine & Sons.
Dan

[Berryb]

I understand why Walden was called "little Sheffield". What I don't understand is what Walden had that made all those Knife makers go there. Thanks
Bruce

[KAW]

Joe > That knife has the look that if knives could talk, that one would have some very interesting stories to tell….

Why Walden?…. that’s a great question, Bruce. The answer actually goes back to the 1813, when Jacob Treadwell Walden purchased the land surrounding the high falls of the Wallkill River with vision of using the water source to power various industries creating a settlement bearing his name. He started with a textile mill that was quite prosperous through the 1820’s, but due to the national financial strife of the 1830’s/40’s (yes, I collect the Hard Times Token of the era too), the mill finally went under. In 1852 a group of 16 workers who were upset over the cost-cutting policies of the management of the Waterville Knife Company of Connecticut, especially the new policy of having the cutlers provide their own files and tools, left to establish the New York Knife Company. The site that the workers chose for their new factory was located on the east side of the Hudson River in Mattewan, near Beacon, in Dutchess County, New York. In 1856 the village of Walden in Orange County enticed the New York Knife Company to move to the village on the west side of the Hudson River to utilize a recently idled textile mill adjacent to the high falls on the Wallkill River. What clinched the deal was the community's offer to help move all the equipment & the families' possessions.

In 1870, again a group of workers fractured off, this time from New York Knife to form Walden Knife Co. just a few hundred yards down river…. all over the game of baseball. Everyday (as weather allowed, of course) during lunch a group of employees would play baseball.
One day, an argument over a call made about a play got out of hand requiring the owner, Thomas Bradley Jr., to intervene and forbid anymore baseball games at lunch.

IIRC, George Schrade and his brothers once worked for Walden Knife Co. and an association was definitely established when George sold his NY Press Button Knife Co. to Walden Knife Co. in 1903. The following year George along with two of his brothers started the Schrade Cutlery Co. at the east side of the village as the equipment was now powered by electricity, the factory no longer needed to be sited along the river.

…. and there you have it, how a little village happen to become the home of three major players in knife manufacturing….

[KAW]

I guess this is as good a time as any.... due to the intertwined & complicated history of knife mfg in the region, the only way to keep it straight in my head was to compile a timeline. I have it in a pdf format, but have to figure out how to load it to the board.... for now I converted it into a couple of jpegs. If it too small to read, click twice on the image and then use your browser's zoom feature to enlarge the page to a readable size. If someone can help me out on loading the pdf, I would appreciate it....