[Slater]

An article about the end of this old US knife manufacturer. Sad to see it go:

http://www.syracuse.com/articles/business/index.ssf?/base/business-7/117369009010720.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

[coelacanth]

I own a number of Camillus blades and can honestly say they will be missed. Good, solid workingman's knives that have never let me down as long as I did my part. Hopefully the company can be re-organized on a more competetive model and the family or someone in the industry can purchase the rights to the name and restore this once proud name to the American lexicon.

[pictoblu]

"Hopefully the company can be re-organized on a more competetive model and the family or someone in the industry can purchase the rights to the name and restore this once proud name to the American lexicon."

Would be nice, but the trend in the knife world is to buy up the equipment and ship it over to China. Such is the case of Schrade. You gotta look at the knife/blade to determine if it's an American Schrade (RIP) or a recent communist china made piece.

That boy in Tennessee, S. Taylor, he bought Schrade and sent the equipment over to his commie china factory.

You gotta look real careful at all production knives these days cause most new stock is made in Communist China.

When I think about it, the chinese (and the japanese) were making knives and swords back when our ancestors were still swinging by their tails in the trees. I've had china knives that are way superior to anything coming out of the WR Case factory today.

So it will be interesting to see if Camillus is bought and shipped to Asia. Camillus was one of the all time great American Knife Manufacturers. They supplied the american military with so many knives during WWII that the gov gave them a special citation for their performance during those years. Ka-bar is the name of the Mark2 that stuck, but most of them were made by Camillus, hands down. Ka-bar just spent more time on advertising than knife making, at that time. Thru the years when Ontario/spec plus won the gov contract, ka-bar stopped producing mi-spec Mark2's, but Camillus carried on and continued producing a superior knife.

RIP.

[hso]

Old news, but worth pointing out that two of the oldest knife manufacturers are now gone and that United Cutlery/Arrowhead Manufacturing has gone under as well.

Taylor didn't buy any equipment from the Schrade sale. Benchmade and SOG and a couple of others bought the little modern equipment Shcrade had. SMKW, United and Blueridge bought knives and knife parts that were on hand. Taylo bought the intellectual "property", designs, names, drawings, patterns, etc., and now has the knives made in the PRC in factories using state of the art equipment. The equpment in China is more modern than available in almost any "modern" American knife manufacture. Schrade had invested in some modern knifemaking equipment, but the majority of it was like Camillus's pre '50s knife making equipment. The skilled craftsmen and women who were the living CNC machines used this equipment to make great knives, but the cheaper labor and labor saving modern computer controlled equipement that the PRC factories have played a role, along with poor/mis management, played their role in the closing of 3 of the largest knife companies in the world.

If you go over to Bladeforums, Knifeforums or read Blade or Knives Illustrated or Tactical Knives you'll find lively and thorough discussions of what happened to Schrade, Camillus and United/Arrohead that brought them down.

[CWL]

Too bad Camillus went under when there were so many hands ready to offer help from local, state and federal. Truly a case of mismanagement. Heard alot about the problems paying employees and designers, but I never knew about all the $ help and incentives that was ignored/refused.

There are more collectors of quality knives than ever before, if the Camillus name can be brought back making quality products with modern machinery, there should be plenty of customers, here and world-wide.

[mp510]

That boy in Tennessee, S. Taylor, he bought Schrade and sent the equipment over to his commie china factory.

You gotta look real careful at all production knives these days cause most new stock is made in Communist China.

When I think about it, the chinese (and the japanese) were making knives and swords back when our ancestors were still swinging by their tails in the trees. I've had china knives that are way superior to anything coming out of the WR Case factory today.


Camillus actually tried the cheap import thing before they went under. They marketed knives under the Camco trademark, and slapped Camillus on the package several times. Even that didn't help them.

[Don Gwinn]

Wait a minute, United Cutlery actually went out of business? How do you go out of business selling the junk they sold?

[poor_richard]

A note on Schrade:

Look into Canal Street Cutlery. They are somehow connected to what's left of Shrade. They look like nice knives. Can't say for sure but they look like they could be something along the quality of Queen.

[hso]

Don,

The failure of their manufacturing arm, Arrowhead, dragged them down. BudK now owns United and Arrowhead's auction of the equipment took place back in April (I think).