William H. Maher was born in 1846 in Thompsonville, Connecticut. At the age of 20, he became president of Young Men’s Club in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. Then a year later in 1868 he moved to Toledo, OH and worked as a clerk. In 1870, he became a member of a firm that later was known as C. Gerber & Co., a wholesale hardware company. He became a traveling salesman in 1874 – 1875 in Springfield Massachusetts and South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. During this time, he became acquainted with another traveling salesman, Emil Grosh, for the company and they decided to form a business partnership in 1877. The two formed Maher & Grosh Wholesale Cutlery Co. Maher and Grosh used their skills they had learned from the company in the hardware industry and set out with one goal in mind ~ “Sell quality, American-made products to folks all across the world.” (From Maher & Grosh.com)
Working hard at their goal, they achieved success by creating content-specific advertisements in various magazines, journals and a yearly mail-order catalogue. They promoted their cutlery which included items such as hacksaws, fishing equipment, straight razors and pocket knives.
They stood out in their market with their Maher & Grosh Toledo, O. tang stamp and their ornate blade etching, which commonly displayed the company name and phrase “Razor Steel.” Still to this day, the etching continues to be a major desire for collectors. Because it symbolizes Maher and Grosh’s demand on bringing quality and reliable tools to their customers.
During this time William Maher marries Anne Kelsy Maher. She was a school teacher in Madison, Conn., and in 1872 moves to Toledo with her husband.
The Maher and Grosh partnership continued until 1896, when Emil Grosh decided to retire due to health issues. William Maher managed the company until his death in 1913 in Toledo, OH. His son-in-law, Charles T. Whinery, succeeded Maher and continued the Maher & Grosh tradition for nearly fifty years. The company was purchased by Thomas E Stanley and moved to Clyde, OH in 1962 and continued until 1988.
Some other interesting facts about William Maher:
1886 - Organizer of the Toledo Natural Gas Company
1888 - Organizer and vice-president of Union Savings Bank
1894 - Co-founded the Independent Party
Along with these other accomplishments, William Maher also wrote several books sharing his business acumen. Two of his books are: Drum Taps, The Diary of a Commercial Traveler and On the Road to Riches: Practical hints for clerks and young business men.
William and Anne had a daughter Amy Grace Maher in 1883, born in Toledo, Ohio. She has quite a list of accomplishments for herself!
1906 – Graduated from Smith College
1909 - Delegate to White House Conference on Child Welfare
1911 - Helped establish the first open-air school for tubercular children in Toledo
1916 - Founded the Toledo Consumers’ League; president until 1937
1920 - Chairman of Ohio Council on Women and Children in Industry; first chairman of Ohio League
of woman voters
1921 - First president of League of Women Voters of Toledo
1938 - Appointed by President Roosevelt as technical adviser in the Social Security Board
1965 - Died in Toledo
There isn't a lot of information about the Maher & Grosh Cutlery Co. but what you do find is really very interesting! I would love to know your thoughts about this company and the knives they made. Do you collect these knives? Have any pictures that you would like to share?
Please leave a comment below and make sure to read my other blog posts about Knife Collecting here! ~ Stephanie
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So in order to understand what these four companies all have in common, we have to go back to the very beginning of their stories. So lets begin in 1864 when Charles W. Platts emigrated from Sheffield England to America. Charles having come from a long line of knife makers back in England followed this same path when arriving in America.
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NKCA stands for National Knife collectors Association. This association began in 1972 when a group of collectors, working at knife shows in Kentucky and Tennessee, began to realize there was a growing number of knife enthusiasts and collectors. They decided to band together and form a club that would expand this growing trend from a hobby into what they hoped would be a profitable business.
I was recently asked what does the acronym or abbreviation NKCA stand for on knives. Really great question! So I thought I would make a great topic for this months blog.
NKCA stands for National Knife collectors Association. This association began in 1972 when a group of collectors, working at knife shows in Kentucky and Tennessee, began to realize there was a growing number of knife enthusiasts and collectors. They decided to band together and form a club that would expand this growing trend from a hobby into what they hoped would be a profitable business.
This new club was first named the National Knife Collectors & Dealers Association and formed in 1972. Then after a couple of years the "& Dealers" was dropped for tax considerations.
Their first elected president of this club, was the leading knife dealer at the present time, James F. Parker. The development of this club included enrolling members nationwide with a yearly membership fee which included receiving a small monthly newsletter from this organization. Later on this newsletter developed into a monthly magazine.
In 1974, Parker thought outside of the box and proposed that this newly developed club produce a "Collector's Knife" made exclusively for it's members. This was definitely a great idea for gaining new memberships for the NKCA club. Being a member of a knife club and also being able to purchase a limited edition knife from that organization, was such an unheard of thing at the time, that it drove the desire to be able to own one of these knives to a high demand!
Parker chose an Anglo-Saxon whittler pocket knife with the most desired Case XX pattern 6391. Even though Parker chose this highly desired patterned knife, he was having trouble finding any U.S. manufacturers interested in producing these knives for him. So he approached Howard Rabin of Star Sales in Knoxville, TN. Howard Rabin was the U.S. importer of German made Kissing Crane knives. His company jumped at the chance to be apart of this new venture and eagerly made the 1,200 knives that Parker needed for this organization.
In the beginning, these knives were sold for $12 each and only one knife per member but they did not sell out as they had hoped. Then later, they created another offer mailed out to their members, allowing each member to order up to three knives each at $15 per knife. Used as a promotional tool and fundraiser for this organization, this began the beginning of club knives.
In 1975, the desire for these Limited Edition NKCA club knives went from selling at $12 each to being sold for $600. The 1976 club knife, a Case XX 4380 whittler with a production of 5,000, would sell out! The price of $15 would peak at a value of $250. The 1977 club knife was a Kissing Crane stag handled gunboat canoe knife and 6,000 were produced, followed then by 8,000 IXL Wostenholm green bone handled three blade canoes in 1978. The peak number of knives produced for this club was in 1981 with an issue of 12,000 NKCA club knives made by Queen.
From that high point, the NKCA membership declined as did the number of annual club knives produced. Part of the reason this trend began to dwindle was due to regional clubs who wanted their own club knives for their members. The demand to be able to create a knife with a unique design, made all the rare unusual patterns and rare vintage patterns that had not been reproduced by a club almost impossible to find. The clubs would try many variations by changing the handle materials, shifting blades around and adding blades to existing patterns, etc. Nothing worked as well as the early revival of long discontinued vintage patterns, as originated by Parker and the NKCA.
There were so many club knives that it made it almost impossible to collect them all. The over supply had affected value of the knives. A $12 knife that was going for $600 was now going for less than $300.
Club knives do have their appeal to collectors because they were often made using unique or older rare designs, popular handle materials and also they usually have etching on the blade that easily identifies the club, the year and the limited number of knives made.
To me, I find collecting these knives to be collecting a part of history! Finding those unique knives that also has a very interesting and innovative story behind them.
Currently, we have a few of the these NKCA knives available on our website. Click here to see what we currently have available.
Thanks for taking time to read this post. I would love to hear your comments on this topic. Please leave your comments below and also any suggestions for future topics.
Source: Knives Illustrated
I had a request to write about knife blades and a little history on this subject. Thank you very much for that awesome request! Here at Hersandhistreasures.com, we love receiving your input on topics that you are interested in learning more about. All you have to do is put your request in the comment section below about a topic that you would like to hear more about and I will try my best to feature that topic in our monthly blog.
So this month I am going to continue the topic of Case pocket knives and dig in a little further and talk about their various styles of blades, types of steel used and the abbreviation letter marks on the blades. I found this real exciting to learn more in depth about and I hope you will as well!
First, lets start off from the beginning. Do you know how W.R. Case & Sons came about using their well known "XX" Trademark and what it means? This trademark goes back to the early days when the "XX" was used as a quality check system during the process of heat treating when making their blades. When the blades were put through the initial hardening furnace, an X was marked on the pan holding the blades. Then when the blades were returned to the oven for tempering, a second X was added. "XX" then showed that each blade had been properly and fully treated.
Still today, the Case "XX" trademark stands for the quality that is placed into making each knife.
Case uses a few different types of steel materials in making their blades and since you can't hone a good knife blade from bad steel, that is why Case uses only premium quality steels for their knives. They are ordered and have them tested in order to fit their high quality standards. Here are a list of the types of steel they use.
1. Chrome Vanadium (CV) ~ a special formula of alloyed cutlery steel known for its ease of re-sharpening. A quick touch up will bring back a chrome vanadium blade's original sharp edge. You need to use extra care with these blades. Keep a thin film of oil on the blade to maintain the finish of the steel.
2. Case Tru-Sharp "Surgical Stainless Steel" ~ A special high-carbon steel that helps the blades hold an edge longer than conventional steel. This steel also provides extraordinary blade strength and corrosion resistance.
3. ATS-34 ~ ATS is the brand name for their premium steel used. It's reputation for edge retention is second to none among the stainless varieties. It is manufactured with very few impurities. It consists of combining three principal elements; carbon, chromium and molybdenum. Added levels of carbon and chromium enhance the steel's hardness and rust resistance qualities but re-sharpening requires a bit more effort.
Case makes a variety of blade styles for their pocket knives. I have used the pictures found in SARGENT'S American Premium Guide To Knives & Razors book for the illustrations of blade styles below.
Pictured below and according to Sargent's, "Between 1962 and 1965 Case changed the master blade of their XX991/2 pattern to a smaller design. The "A" blade is the older and larger of the two and is more valuable."
Also, between 1963 and 1967, both the Muskrat and the regular blade was used in the trapper. The narrower Muskrat blade is more valuable.
In addition to the pattern number on Case knives, they will often have additional letter or letters that will represent a blade type or signify characteristics unique in the knife. The blade abbreviations may be located either behind, below or on a different blade than the pattern number. Below is list of abbreviations and what the abbreviation stands for. Sometimes the abbreviations run together.
CC = Blade will have a concave grind.
D = Blades made from Damascus steel.
DR = Rear bolster will be drilled for lanyard.
EO = The knife will have an easy open feature.
F = The knife will have a file blade or a fisherman’s blade.
HP = This knife will have both a sheep foot blade and a spay blade.
HE = This knife will have a sheep foot and pen blade.
I = The knife will have iron liners.
J = The knife will have a long spay blade.
K = The knife will have a corkscrew.
L = The knife will have a locking mechanism.
P = The knife will have a punch blade.
PEN = The knife will have a pen blade.
PU = The knife will have a punch blade.
R = There will be a bail in the handle, or the knife will have a razor blade.
RAZ = The knife will have a razor blade or one armed man blade.
SAB = The blade will be saber-ground.
SHAD = The knife will not have bolsters.
SC = The knife will have a pair of scissors.
SICS = The knife will have a pair of scissors.
SP = The knife will have a spay blade.
SS = The blades and springs will be stainless steel.
SH = The knife will have a sheep foot blade.
S = The knife will not have bolsters.
SSP = The blades and springs will be stainless steel and will have polished blade edges.
T = The knife will have tip bolsters.
W = The knife will have a Wharncliffe blade.
X = Used to signify a change in the handle dye.
1/2 = The knife will have a clip master blade.
3/4 = The knife will be saber ground on one side and not the other. This is a rare.
Click here for the link to our website to view our Case and other brand of pocket knives.
We thank you for taking the time to read our blog. Make sure to leave a comment below.
Next month we will be talking about the Schrade knife company and looking into some of their history and other facts.
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This companies roots go back to 1889 when the Case brothers William Russell, Jean, John and Andrew Case began selling cutlery from the back of a wagon in small New York villages.
]]>One of our passions here at Hers and His Treasures is collecting US made knives. This month we are featuring one of our favorite companies W.R. Case & Sons. So here is little background history.
This companies roots go back to 1889 when the Case brothers William Russell, Jean, John and Andrew Case began selling cutlery from the back of a wagon in small New York villages.
In approximately 1886 the four Case brothers joined with J.B.F. Champlin & Son and formed the Cattaraugus Cutlery Co. Then in 1896 Andrew, Jean and John left Cattaraugus and formed the Case Brothers Cutlery Co. in Little Valley, N.Y. The Case Brothers’ cutlery business was so successful that in 1900, they built their own factory in Little Valley, New York. The brothers’ specialty was hand-forged cutlery made of high-quality products. Desiring to impress their customers with a trademark signifying excellent quality, the brothers began to use the XX mark that is so well known today. Sometime around 1903, J. Russell left Cattaraugus and joined his uncles as a salesman for the Case Brothers Cutlery Co.
Several years later, W.R. Case & Son Cutlery Co. moved from their Little Valley location to Bradford, PA and merged with C. Platts & Cutlery Co. The new company became W. R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co. By the time the company moved to Pennsylvania in 1905, the four Case brothers had established their brands. They dominated the knife industry making kitchen, hunting and pocket knives.
Then in 1911 H.N. Platts left W.R. Case & Sons. It is also in the same year that a fire destroyed the Case Brother's facility.
In 1929 W.R. Case & Sons outgrew their Bank Street location in Bradford and moved onto Russell Blvd.
Throughout the years Case changed their tang stamps. For dating Case pocket knives, here is the tang stamp chart for Case XX folding knives.
Pre-1920
1920-1940
1940-1964
1945-1950
1950-1964
1965-1969
1970-1979
1980-1989
1990-1993
1993-1999
1997-1999
2000-2009
2010-Present
In 1972 W.R. Case and Sons sold to American Brands Inc. In 1980 Case changed their product line marking to lightning SS with the dot system.
1988 is when American Brands Inc. sold W.R. Case & Sons to James F. Parker out of Chattanooga, TN. Parker did not keep the company long and in 1990 sold to River Associates in Chattanooga, Tn.
W.R. Case & Sons is now owned by Zippo Manufacturing Company since June 2, 1993.
My husband and I are big collector's of the W.R. Case & Sons pocket knives. We enjoy the history, craftsmanship and of course adding to our own collection. Please feel free to contact us if you are looking for a specific knife or you can browse what we have available online at www.hersandhistreasures.com
Please feel free to leave us a comment below in our comment section. Thanks!
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