Thread: American Knife Co. Plymouth Hollow, Conn.

The Case brothers helped Champlin and founded Cattaraugus cutlery co but their employment was short lived for sure. All the Case brothers were all gone the next year but all of them had big projects for cutlery.
In 1896, John Jean and Andrew Case form Case Brothers Cutlery co in little Valley NY.

While at Cattaraugus cutlery, W.R. Case daughter Debbie who was working as a bookkeeper for Cattaraugus married H.N. Platts, another cutlery connection. The Father Charles Platts a master cuttler from England who worked for Joseph Rodgers and Northfield Knife co in Connecticut all worked for Cattaraugus until 1896 and then all 6 Platts left to found C. Platts and sons in Gowanda NY. Interestingly The Case brothers were selling Platts cutlery under the name Case Brothers Cutlery.



http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...re-1890-a.html

Man! This Case history is NUTS! They were certainly some tough and determined folks. It seems some family squabbles had to be occuring! All 3 Case brothers had kids working in the Little Valley factory. In 1906 they bought Kane and moved their families there. In 1908, Andrew quit and sold his interest to Jean and properties to John.
It seemed to go downhill in 1908 as the Kane property was forclosed on and they purchased Smethport Cutlery in NY which burned in 1910 followed by Little Valley burning in 1912. Springville, NY offered free site, power, and water for 25 years, not to mention 5 years tax-free and a new brick plant was erected. Alas, financial troubles persisted and the XX trademark was sold to W.R. Case in 1914 and Case brothers were declared bankrupt in 1915 and closed. So My question is how was W.R. Case related to the original Case Brothers? Here, also begins W.R. Case and my understanding is his early razors were made by George Korn. Was Korn related to the Cases?
Here are a few Korn blades!

It's a tangled Web for sure!

I see that George Korn was not related, but made razors for Case Brothers, W.R. Case and Son, and Son(s), Cattauraugus, and Sears Roebuck. An apt enabler old George was!

It is so interesting that Theresa Case Champlin brought her brothers onto the cutlery business, with her husband approval J.B.F. Champlin.
Their Son Tint Champlin, who was involved with Cattaraugus from the beginning is a MAJOR factor in the Case business, like his mother was.
Theresa died and a few years later J.B.F. died in 1903, and Tint took the company over is his early 30's. He made the company strive, but without adding really anything no new location, actually like Tom said the family feuds were numerous and Tint was the mediator and settle many feuds, even a few of them were lawsuits and Tint the mediator made them settle out of court. Tint was regarded as a great men involved in the school district and his community. And lets not forget that Tint with Russ and Dean Case founded Kinfolks!

Here a good article about Tint on his 65th birthday.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

I see that George Korn was not related, but made razors for Case Brothers, W.R. Case and Son, and Son(s), Cattauraugus, and Sears Roebuck. An apt enabler old George was!

George Korn was somewhat related to the history of Case via that he produce razors for Cattaraugus and W.R. Case & Son, W.R. Case & Sons,
and Sears, Roebuck & Company.

FYI, You see one of that Catt wrench knives for sale every now and then. They generally bring BIG bucks. About half of the ones I've seen for sale on the bay have been reworked and had the wrong blades installed back in 'em. YOu SURE better know what you're messing with if your gonna run with the big dogs in the pocket knife collecting "bidness". There are a LOT more phony Case products out there for the unsuspecting too. Case is probably the most counterfeited knife out there today.

Phony knives are such a big problem that a gent even wrote a book about it, Gerald Witcher's “Counterfeiting Antique Cutlery”.

If im correct Wullie ive seen two different type of these knifes on with the wrench like on the patent picture and one with a "crescent" type wrench from Cattaraugus.