It seems like all I have these days is bad news for you. Less than 3 months after our report that United Cutlery had filed for bankruptcy in the United States, another one of America's traditional cutlery icons closes it's doors forever. Camillus Cutlery officially went out of business on 28th February 2007.

Camillus have been in trouble for more than the last five years - effectively living on borrowed time. Camillus provided a range of traditional cutlery and modern design knives and a number of factors have been cited for the company's eventual failure. Just like Schrade a few years ago, the main factor has been increased competition from cheaper goods manufactured in the Far East, coupled with Camillus's determination to retain a manufacturing base in New York state.

It has been reported that freelance knife designers Darrel Ralph and Ethan Becker (both contracted by Camillus), have sued Camillus for non-payment of royalties owed for their respective ROBO assisted knife models and the Becker Knife and Tool custom range. Camillus also borrowed $125,000 from design engineer Phil Gibbs which has not been repaid.

COMPANY HISTORY

One of the oldest established American cutlery manufacturers, Camillus was started in 1873 by German immigrant Adolph Kastor. Originally named Bodenheim, Meyer & Co, the first Camillus products were cow chains and imported German knives, but Camillus were producing their own stateside manufactured cutlery by 1902. Just eight years later Camillus employed about 200 people and produced just under a million knives per year. During World War 2 Camillus shipped 15 million knives to the Allied Forces, and in 1947 began production of knives for the Boy Scouts of America - which continued until the company's collapse in February 2007.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR CAMILLUS

Camillus were offerred financial assistance over the years that preceeded it's closure, both by the US government, and by the New York state, prompted initially by a financial deficit in the company's pension fund. Capital grants, training grants, and a $200,000 machinery and equipment grant were all offerred but never taken up. The mayor of Camillus even tried to assist personally without success.

In 2003, Kevin Pipes, an independent cutlery dealer bought out Camillus Cutlery's share of his business for $12 million, in the hope that the money could be reinvested into the Camillus marque but the money soon disappeared without trace.

The final nail in Camillus' coffin came in 2006 when, threatened with the possibility of job, pay and benefit cuts, staff voted to take strike action against Camillus. The strike rolled on for 6 painful months until November 2006 when the employees finally gave in and accepted their new conditions. Without a salary, many employees had no choice but to seek employment elsewhere or move out of the area, so many never returned to the Camillus factory.

THE CUTLERY TREND

As always, this is never good news - not least for the company and the people that it employed, but for all of us. One less manufacturer means one less choice for the customer, and when a company goes down with such an expansive model line, the effects of the restriction on consumer choice is more compounded.

The apparent gradual decline of the American cutlery industry is very troubling to everyone - whether you have an interest in cutlery or not - and the effects go far beyond consumer choice and cause societal changes globally. Those that believe knives to be nothing more than offensive weapons that should be erradicated from the UK have nothing to smile about today. Both Schrade (who went out of business a few years ago), and Camillus, both cite cheap Far Eastern imports as their primary reason for closure. Traditionally, American knives have always been rather expensive beautifully made items which previously limited their appeal to serious collectors prepared to pay the price for such a fine piece of workmanship. You should expect to pay around the £300 mark for an American handmade Bowie knife, and typically you don't have much choice of where you can buy from, they are rare and often unique beauties indeed.

However, today you can buy a cheap Far Eastern Bowie-style knife for less than £20. Poorly manufatured by machines in their thousands, you can choose to make your purchase from many sites on the Internet, from military surplus stores - I have even seen them for sale in my local Cash Converters shop window in our local city centre. If anything, the loss of another great name in the quality cutlery world will only serve to increase global crime involving the misuse of knives in developed countries such as ours.

We wish the best of luck in the future to all those involved with Camillus Cutlery.

Pictures:
Top ... Camillus WWII USMC Knife
Bottom ... Camillus Twin-Bladed Supertrapper Hunting Knife

External Links:
Syracuse Post-Standard, "How Things Went Wrong at Camillus Cutlery"
Wikipedia Encyclopedia, "Camillus Cutlery Company"