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The Utica Blade

Knife collector from Utica NY trying to preserve the history of cutlery mfg. in a place I call home!

01/27/2025

Very interesting lady leg I recieved this weekend!

10/17/2024

I saw a post recently of a couple knife boxes and it inspired me to post a few of mine!

These boxes range in age from pre-1920s up to the 1980s. I even stumbled upon a Utica letter press stamp of the knife that would have come in my earliest box! Contrary to how knives are purchased today in individual boxes, these would have held 6 knives and would have been sold to a cutlery retailer.

The letter press stamp would have been used in a printing press to print the image of the knife in a catalog! "92357" is the pattern numer of the knife. 9 stood for the handle material type, rosewood. 2 is the number of blades and 357 designated the handle design, size and configuration!

08/31/2024

Hey folks, just want to say thanks to those of you who have followed me or reached out recently regarding Tulip Knife Co.!

For those of you not familiar with Tulip Knife company, I will explain. Aside from being an avid collector of traditional pocketknives, new and old, I have always had a passion for making things. My deep interest in old pocketknives led to an interest in how they were made and how I could make them! Follow along on my facebook and instagram pages for updates and more information about my knife making journey.

Tulip Knife Co. and .ny on insta!

I will still continue to post Utica knives and information on this page! 🙂

08/03/2024

A couple of stunning pearl handled knives added to the collection recently. I have quite a few pearl handled Uticas but these are something a little different. My understanding is that the pearl was dyed to give it these vibrant colors. Its too bad the whittler has a busted cover but happy to have it anyways!

07/27/2024

Happy friday!

Here is an interesting Utica jack I picked up recently. Saber ground clip blade, swayfront handle, rat-tail bolsters, and those celluloid covers are something else! Dont find many like this!

07/04/2024

Happy 4th of July!

Reposting this knife that I featured in April, 2022. It is a campaign souvenir from 1912, and is the most patriotic Utica knife in my collection.

04/29/2024

When I first jumped into the rabbit hole that is collecting Utica Cutlery knives, I stumbled upon Utica Cutlery marked "Companion Sets". (Look them up on worthpoint.com) After several years and never seeing one at a knife show or seeing one come up for sale online, I figured I may never get to handle one of these in person. I was lucky to have snapped this one up!

As shown in the last picture, this knife is not marked Utica Cutlery, but instead marked Bridge Cutlery Co. I already had my suspisions that Utica was making knives for Bridge and this one is no exception! Utica did an enormous amount of contract work for many large cutlery and hardware firms of the early 1900s. This knife dates from the post WW1 era, to the early 1920s. It is entirely made of carbon steel and was completely nickel plated to resist corrosion, remnants of which can still be seen on the "blades" and handle. Stainless steels hadnt been popularized in the cutlery trade until the mid to late 1920s, thus the nickel plating. It utilizes a creative, but not original, slotted handle construction, similar to civil war era "hobo knives". It would have come in a red cloth pouch to carry or to store it in. The Bridge Cutlery marked knives seem to be far more common than their Utica Cutlery marked counterparts.

Not many Utica knives quite like this one out there!

04/19/2024

I'm too excited to not show a sneak peek of this one...

Detailed post to follow when I can take better pics. 🙂

02/05/2024

Hey folks, its been a while. Figured I would share this 6-bladed scout utility knife I just snapped up. While I am not a fan of cracked ice celluloid handles, I could not pass up an opportunity at a Utica scout like this.

Utica made a good amount of 4-bladed scout utility knives but not many of these 6-bladed varients. A couple features that set it apart, aside from 2 additional tools, are the birds-eye rivets, the use of a clip point secondary blade, and the 3-sided awl or punch. Pretty cool set up in my opinion! This knife dates to the late 1920s-pre 40s era.

They made a version of this knife with jigged bone handle covers and nickel silver bolsters... fingers crossed I find one of those!😂

10/10/2023

Not one of my most intricately made Utica Cutlery made knives but definitely one of my all time favorites!!

These old (pre-1930) metal handled Utica knives seem to be pretty rare, so it was a treat to have scored this one.

09/06/2023

"IROQUOIS, Utica N.Y., 31"

Don't see many Utica Cutlery made Iroquois brand knives made to the caliber this whittler is made to! They are generally made much cheaper than this one is, suggesting this could be an earlier Iroquois knife.

Utica had a couple in house brands as lower cost alternatives to their normal line of pocket knives, Iroquois being one of them. One of the most notable differences from their normal line of knives, noted in an old Utica catalog, is that the blades are stamped out as opposed to being drop forged and then stamped.

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