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Colonial
Knife Company
Providence, Rhode Island
Circa 1930 |
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COMPANY HISTORY -
Colonial Knife Company™ got its start in 1919 when it's founder, Antonio
Paolantonio returned from WWI after serving with the United States Calvary
as a Black Smith. Antonio began making knives at 9 Calendar Street in Providence,
Rhode Island. Antonio called his new company the "A. Paolantonio Cutlery
Company." Antonio's first customers were the jewelry industry. Antonio
made knife skeletons and sold the skeletons to the jewelry industry where
they would place exotic handles on the knives and re-sell the finished knives
to high end men's clothing stores. Over the years the business grew and
in 1926 Antonio changed the company name to Colonial Knife Company, Inc.
and invited his two brothers to join him.
World
War II broke out and Antonio was asked to serve on the War Production Board
in Washington, D.C. where he oversaw the allocation of steel to the cutlery
industry and research that lead to the only combat knife to use polymers
(plastics) for knife handles that offered Navy corpsman and medics the ability
to boil the knife to make it sterile.
Over the
next 40 years Colonial Knife™ grew adding over 150 product lines and
during the 1960's enjoyed the reputation as one of the largest pocket knife
manufactures in America.
During
the 1970's and into the 1980's Colonial™ produced collector knives
for Smith & Wesson, Colt, Winchester, and the "John Russell Barlow"
knives for Russell Harrington Company (Dexter Russell) the "Colonel
Coon" knife line along with producing knives for a number of knife
manufacturers under private label.
In
1998 Colonial Knife™ closed it doors and faded into the history books
as one of the last great AMERICAN pocket knife manufacturing firms. The
knives produced by Colonial are sort after by collectors with many selling
for hundreds of dollars each. In 2001 Colonial Knife became a division of
CCI, Inc. and the traditional knives manufactured by Colonial Knife were
back into production by Colonial Cutlery International, Inc. ™(CCI,Inc.)
and are currently available.
Today,
CCI, Inc. manufactures knives for the Boy Scouts of America, Girl scouts
of the USA, National Rifle Association, Stanley Tool, Cooper Tools, U.S.
Government, E.M.T. firefighters and law enforcement.
888 Knives R Us is proud to offer the Colonial brand of knives. If you are looking for a particular model that you do not see on our webstore, please contact us and we will do our best to find it for you. Thanks for shopping with us. |
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