Northfield Knife Co Visit
Posted: Fri May 06, 2016 2:42 pm
Recently I had the great pleasure as an invite from my good friend Joe (FRJ) to visit the remains of the old Northfield Knife Co site in Northfield CT. For those not familiar with CT, Northfield and the surrounding area which lays within the “Naugatuck Valley” was the location of multiple early CT makers – Northfield, Excelsior but also Thomaston, American Knife Plymouth, Conn Cutlery, Union Knife Co, etc…. No doubt we had a great time - Joe brought his old book that had photos of the original factory – see below and this gave some orientation as to where we were stepping on the foot steps of those old day workers and cutlers… way too cool – like Disney Land for folks who like old knives and history 
I know Joe has posted some photos of the area in the past but wanted to share photos of our trip there – but also as you will see I took photos of some of our old Northfield and Excelsior knives on one of the only upright mortices left on the remains of what was no doubt a very old quality knife factory. A mortice that was originally chiseled out by hand to hold the anvils for hand forging. This was for me pretty cool – bringing the original knives back to the site in which they were made over 100 years ago and shooting photos of them at their birthplace… That is what I am calling the “money” shot 
…
Some background before the photo visit. All these CT cutleries were in existence from the mid-1800s to about 1920-30 (in fact over 85 cutleries existed back in the 19th and early 20th century in CT)… Northfield Knife Co (UN-X-LD – a trademark adopted in 1876 but not on all their knives) was one of the early cutleries in CT (1858-1919) and actually bought at auction the Excelsior Knife Co which only existed from 1880-1884 in nearby Torrington CT.. Unfortunately Excelsior Knife Co was having financial woes after a short lived existence though their knives were indeed of nice quality . Accordingly Northfield Knife Co moved all the Excelsior equipment to the Northfield cutlery site where it was incorporated into the Northfield factory works. Northfield even used the blades (nothing was wasted in that day) from Excelsior for a period of time, and blades were still marked Excelsior Knife Co by Northfield. To me this adds some debate as to whether your Excelsior knife was made 1881-1884 or perhaps abit later at the Northfield site which basically continued with this stamp until approximately 1904 (and a few small variations of it – see Goins for details). Thus knives were made with both the Northfield and Excelsior stamps after the two cutleries merged into one.
Sheffield had a tremendous influence on CT cutleries particularly as many of the workers/cutlers emigrated to the USA from Sheffield during the 1800s. There is a street in the village where many of the workers from Sheffield lived and many of these original houses still exist though I am sure they have had some renovations over the years. Keep in mind all this was clearly within walking distance of the factory site. The name of the street to the shop - Knife Shop Rd - of course
One other note before I show a few photos of the old site. Northfield Knife Co was started by Abraham Turner who persuaded a number of cutlers from the nearby Waterville Knife Co to move and start their own knife company. Following a few different Heads of the Northfield Knife Co, Charles Platts who apprenticed in Sheffield and moved to the USA in 1864, became the Superintendent of the Northfield site in 1872. Northfield over the following years exhibited at many World’s Fairs and won numerous prizes for their fine pocket cutlery. The Platts family were all in the cutlery business and even after Charles died in 1900 the family continued in the business – eventually moving on to Cattaraugus Cutlery and to Boulder CO to start the Western States Cutlery.
Back to the visit but it needed some background especially for those not familiar with Northfield…
This first two photos which have been published in a few books including that on Western knives and Great Eastern Cutleries gives the view at the time the cutlery was operating. Note in the first photo the forges were in the buildings to the right and the second photo is the back of the Northfield Cutlery Factory… I will show you the wall and mortices still remaining from the building where the forging of the blades took place in my photo following…
Photo of Foundation wall and mortices that held the anvils – note these are now on their sides - this was the right hand side building holding the forges in first old photo:
Pipe which fed the factory operations from a holding pond fed by the Northfield Brook (and unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the holding pond – next trip 
) :
An upright mortice which was again hand chiseled to hold the anvil (all others in other photo had fallen over during the years) - this became the platform for some knife photos produced at this site about 100 years ago and more:
Photo of Northfield and Excelsior knives – the third knife down (Horn handled swell center pen) and Hawkbill to the right are stamped Excelsior Knife Co – all other knives are stamped Northfield Knife Co - interestingly our knives covered all handle materials except for stag and ivory - the "money" shot at their place of birth :
Charles Platts House today - exactly as it was pictured in an old photo right below it (basically this house was almost across the street from the factory):
Charles Platts and his wife, Sarah Platts - Grave Stone and Burial Site within the Platts family plot - all this was within a short distance of the remaining factory site:
This was a great time (and thanks again to my good buddy Joe 
) and no doubt we will be going back for a few other photos I would like to capture…. And than Joe and I will be moving on to find the other old cutleries including a trip up to Lakeville to see the Holley site which pretty much has remained intact from my understanding….
Cheers
Lee
I know Joe has posted some photos of the area in the past but wanted to share photos of our trip there – but also as you will see I took photos of some of our old Northfield and Excelsior knives on one of the only upright mortices left on the remains of what was no doubt a very old quality knife factory. A mortice that was originally chiseled out by hand to hold the anvils for hand forging. This was for me pretty cool – bringing the original knives back to the site in which they were made over 100 years ago and shooting photos of them at their birthplace
… That is what I am calling the “money” shot …Some background before the photo visit. All these CT cutleries were in existence from the mid-1800s to about 1920-30 (in fact over 85 cutleries existed back in the 19th and early 20th century in CT)… Northfield Knife Co (UN-X-LD – a trademark adopted in 1876 but not on all their knives) was one of the early cutleries in CT (1858-1919) and actually bought at auction the Excelsior Knife Co which only existed from 1880-1884 in nearby Torrington CT.. Unfortunately Excelsior Knife Co was having financial woes after a short lived existence though their knives were indeed of nice quality . Accordingly Northfield Knife Co moved all the Excelsior equipment to the Northfield cutlery site where it was incorporated into the Northfield factory works. Northfield even used the blades (nothing was wasted in that day) from Excelsior for a period of time, and blades were still marked Excelsior Knife Co by Northfield. To me this adds some debate as to whether your Excelsior knife was made 1881-1884 or perhaps abit later at the Northfield site which basically continued with this stamp until approximately 1904 (and a few small variations of it – see Goins for details). Thus knives were made with both the Northfield and Excelsior stamps after the two cutleries merged into one.
Sheffield had a tremendous influence on CT cutleries particularly as many of the workers/cutlers emigrated to the USA from Sheffield during the 1800s. There is a street in the village where many of the workers from Sheffield lived and many of these original houses still exist though I am sure they have had some renovations over the years. Keep in mind all this was clearly within walking distance of the factory site. The name of the street to the shop - Knife Shop Rd - of course
One other note before I show a few photos of the old site. Northfield Knife Co was started by Abraham Turner who persuaded a number of cutlers from the nearby Waterville Knife Co to move and start their own knife company. Following a few different Heads of the Northfield Knife Co, Charles Platts who apprenticed in Sheffield and moved to the USA in 1864, became the Superintendent of the Northfield site in 1872. Northfield over the following years exhibited at many World’s Fairs and won numerous prizes for their fine pocket cutlery. The Platts family were all in the cutlery business and even after Charles died in 1900 the family continued in the business – eventually moving on to Cattaraugus Cutlery and to Boulder CO to start the Western States Cutlery.
Back to the visit but it needed some background especially for those not familiar with Northfield…
This first two photos which have been published in a few books including that on Western knives and Great Eastern Cutleries gives the view at the time the cutlery was operating. Note in the first photo the forges were in the buildings to the right and the second photo is the back of the Northfield Cutlery Factory… I will show you the wall and mortices still remaining from the building where the forging of the blades took place in my photo following…
) :: ) and no doubt we will be going back for a few other photos I would like to capture…. And than Joe and I will be moving on to find the other old cutleries including a trip up to Lakeville to see the Holley site which pretty much has remained intact from my understanding….Cheers
Lee
....
... thanks again!! 
.... I agree with you though about the dreaming - when we were at the Northfield site I could hear the hammers banging off the anvils