Imperial Schrade

Imperial Schrade Corp. was an American knife manufacturer of hunting knives and pocketknives. Imperial Schrade was the consolidation of five forerunner companies, including its namesakes, the Imperial Knife Company, founded 1916, and the Schrade Cutlery Company, founded in 1904. In 2004, the company stopped making knives and closed its factory. The name was bought by Taylor Brands and used for marketing purposes.

The Imperial Knife Company had its roots at the Empire Knife Company in Winsted, Connecticut. In 1916, two men named Felix and Michael Mirando moved to Providence, Rhode Island to be near its jewelry industry and began making skeletons for “waldemar,” or pocket watch chain knives. With their friend Domenic Fazzano as manager, they established the Imperial Knife Company, which would grow to at one point be the largest knife manufacturer in the United States. The company developed a number of successful innovations in the manufacture of commercial value-priced folding pocket knives.

In 1941, Albert M. Baer purchased the Ulster Knife Company (which was founded in Ellenville, New York, in the 1870s) and merged it with the Imperial Knife Company and designated this new business as the Imperial Knife Associated Companies, to produce knives for the military. Albert's brother, Henry Baer, was the company's first president and the namesake for Schrade's "Uncle Henry" line of knives.

Tang stamps bearing the Imperial name appeared until 1988, when they were discontinued and replaced by the Schrade name.

Schrade Cutlery Company had its roots in the New York Press Button Knife Company, formed in 1892 by George Schrade, an inventor from Sheffield, England. Unable to raise sufficient capital to begin knife production, Schrade sold a partial interest in the company to the Walden Knife Company. The company's unusual name arose from its first knife design, a switchblade or automatic-opening pocket knife with an operating button mounted in the knife bolster. First patented by Schrade in 1892, the knife was eventually produced with a unique style of clip point blade. In 1903, Schrade sold all of his interest in the New York Press Button Knife Co. to Walden Knife Company. The following year, Schrade formed the Schrade Cutlery Company in Walden.

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