In
1898, a small cutlery firm in Tidioute, Pennsylvania, begins turning out
pocketknives under the name Tidioute Cutlery Company. The company struggles for
two years in a competitive marketplace, and is dissolved in 1900.
Not
far from Tidioute in Little Valley, New York, a grandson of Job R. Case by the
name of Wallace R. Brown founds a razor jobbing operations in 1899. He names this
firm the Union Razor Company, and a successful start leads Brown to expand the
business. In January 1902, Brown purchases the Tidioute Cutlery Company’s
assets and begins manufacturing knives and razors there under the Union Razor
name.
The
company’s name was changed to Union Cutlery Company on January 15, 2009, a
reflection of the company’s ever-increasing emphasis on knives. Soon
thereafter, the nearby town of Olean, New York, offered Union Cutlery several
enticements to relocate its factory there, and in 1911, the factory was
relocated to Olean, New York.
The
knives made at this time were stamped “Union Cutlery Company, Olean, N.Y”.
Union was soon making an extensive line of pocketknives and fixed blade knives
bearing such stamps as “Olcut”, “Keenwell”, “Viking”, “John Jay”, and by 1923,
another trademark that became popular on their large folding hunter patterns:
Ka-Bar.
According
to legend, this last trademark came from a testimonial letter. An old trapper
whose life had allegedly been saved in a bear fight by a well-made Union Cutlery
Company knife wrote it. Due to his lack of education, the written account of
how he had been able to “kil a bar” was shortened and appeared as KA-BAR.
A
trademark was born, and the Ka-Bar name soon became more popular than the Union
Cutlery name stamping. During World War II, countless troops were exposed to
the brand stamped on the blades of their reliable U.S. Navy Mark 2 and U.S.
Marine 1219C2 knives. That timeless design became famously known as a “Ka-Bar”,
regardless of weather the knife in hand was made by Union Cutlery Company or
another equally respected American manufacture.
In
1951, the corporate name was changed to Ka-Bar Cutlery Company, Inc and the
tang stamping was changed from Ka-Bar to Kabar. In 1954, Ka-bar attempted to
move the production of pocketknives to Dawsonville, Georgia, hoping to take
advantage of the inexpensive labor supply in the North Georgia Mountains.
Ka-Bar management, however, failed to reckon with the area residents taking off
work completely for much of the planting and harvest season. Then, too,
although laborers were plentiful, there was a general lack of skilled workers
in the area. Within a year, the company moved back to Olean, New York.
After
Danforth Brown’s death in 1960, the company changed ownership several times
and, for a brief time in the 1960’s, completely stopped knife production. Then,
in 1966, Cole National Corporation of Cleveland, Ohio purchased the company and
again started national distribution with emphasis upon marketing through
several large discount stores.
Collector
interest in the old brand was growing in the 1970s, and in 1976 the company
issued its first commemorative knives and formed a Ka-Bar Collectors Club.
In
1982, Cole National filed for bankruptcy, and the Ka-Bar product line was purchased
by American Consumer Products and moved to Solon, Ohio. American Consumer
Products would retain ownership until May 1996, when Ka-Bar was sold to the
Alcas Corporation of Olean, New York, returning the company to the “home” they
had first set foot in 85 years before. In 2003, Ka-Bar moved to its current
location on Olean’s Homer Street.
Since
the late 1970s, a varying portion of the company’s production have been made
overseas, first in Japan and more recently in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. The
company’s famed Mark 2 and variations thereof have remained “Made in the
U.S.A.’ as have Ka-Bar’s special limited-edition knives such as those made for
the Ka-Bar Collectors Club. The company is not currently offering traditional
style pocketknives, and the Ka-Bar Collectors Club became inactive in 2006.
