All About Pocket Knives

Did Ontario Knife go completely out of business?

Nevermind, I just saw on Knife Magazine.
Purchased by Blue Ridge Knives attempting to restart in NY.

Here's a couple of article links:

https://www.knifemagazine.com/knife-tho ... e-company/

https://www.knifemagazine.com/breaking- ... roduction/

I wish Blue Ridge well. Makes sense given that they were a major distributor of Ontario's products. Hopefully, they market the endeavor well. Malco tried to reopen the old Vise Grip plant in DeWitt, NE; and failed because they didn't market them-AT ALL. I hope they don't do what SMKW did with Queen, period. Used to give Taylor/S&W a lot of crap for making Schrades in China, but I've noticed they're making quite a few here now (but contracting them out to Bear). Hoping both production of the tactical and traditional (Old Hickory) models continue. But most importantly--that they hire all 56 employees back. Komatsu bought P&H, which included Joy Manufacturing out here, and their local branch was second to only Walmart in the amount of jobs it provided. A year later, they shuttered the operation, moving it to the other Eastern Division branch in Georgia. The plant sat empty for five years. A plastics firm out of New Jersey finally bought it to move operations here, but so far, they haven't done much.

I retired my Camillus TL-29s for the Klein/Utica version--right thereafter, Klein cancels the contract and moves production of most of the 1550 series overseas. I replace my Camillus MKII with the Ontario Spec Plus version (I love the handles on the entire range--they are very comfortable for extended use when clearing brush and the like), and also bought the Spec Plus version of the Pilot Survival Knife--and then, well, this happens. Am I bad luck or what?

Figured I'd bump this.

I noticed that a ton of retailers got in new stock of RATs and Spec Plus models, so I assume that Blue Ridge's attempts to revive Ontario worked.

Checking the Ontario website, I noticed this message:

Ontario Knife Company has been purchased and relocated to Virginia.
Please pardon our disruption in service while the relocation is completed.
We will be in contact with you as soon as OKC is open for business again.

Does that mean they'll be moving production to Marion (where Blue Ridge Knives is located)? However, I doubt it--I suspect that the US models will be dropped as the back stock of them sells out, and going forward, the only models being produced will be those sourced from Taiwan and China. And it seems the Taiwanese RAT series was not only Ontario's biggest seller, but also BRK's long before they owned Ontario Knife.

cody6268 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 10:29 pm Figured I'd bump this.

Ontario Knife Company has been purchased and relocated to Virginia.

Does that mean they'll be moving production to Marion (where Blue Ridge Knives is located)?

I wonder if operating cost in a state like NY make it necessary to move production down to the south where the cost of doing 'biddness must be less w/o so much over-reaching bureaucracy....

Somewhat related. Remington is closing its Ilion NY plant and moving out of state. The small town of Ilion will be devastated losing over 700 jobs. Remington cites the need to move due to NY state's hostile business environment.

The old Ontario plant is turning into a cheese factory I heard. They were eager to hire as many people from Ontario as possible, as it will require a lot of staff at the new factory. I was at least glad to hear all those employees have some type of job opportunity. When a large factory closes in a small town, it is usually devastating.