Schatt & Morgan

 

Knives have been made at the factory of Queen Cutlery Company of Titusville Pennsylvania for over 100 years. It is arguably the oldest and last American Cutlery that truly continues to produce knives in the same way as they were produced there when the factory opened in 1902; traditional bench-made American cutlery. This is remarkable in this day and age.

Queen is now the last American cutlery factory that truly makes knives “the old fashioned way.” Traditional bench-made American Cutlery. This is remarkable in this day and age.”

The mid-1930s were a difficult time for many American industries including the cutlery industry. Many once famous and thriving cutlery companies met their demise in this era of economic hardship. One of them, the Schatt and Morgan Cutlery Company of Titusville, Pennsylvania came to an end after nearly four decades of producing some of the finest cutlery know in the history of the industry.

 Five former supervisors who had been previously released from Schatt and Margan, started their own business in 1922. They named their new company "Queen City Cutlery" after their hometown of Titusville, which was quite often referred to as the Queen City. They developed a thriving contract business and were still doing well then their former employer, Schatt and Morgan closed their doors in the 1930s. At a Sheriff's auction, the Queen City Cutlery founders bought all the holdings, land, buildings and equipment of the bankrupted Schatt and Morgan Company.

In the 1960s, at time of modernization and restructuring, many cutlery businesses were closing their doors or being purchased for corporate diversification. In 1969 the ancestors of the five Queen City founders felt their business would survive better being part of a corporate conglomeration, so they sold the business to Servotronics Corporation of Buffalo, New York.

In September of 2012, Queen Cutlery was purchased by Ken Daniels of Oak Hill, Ohio. Mr. Daniels, a long time collector and dealer of Queen knives since 1950s, and a traditional pocket knife expert, is the perfect blend for one of the oldest knife companies in America.

Queen Cutlery still uses some of the old Schatt and Morgan equipment, tooling, manufacturing processes and has become the finest manufacturer of high quality antique style pocket knives and hunting knives in the U.S. The former Schatt and Morgan brand is considered the most valuable collectable pocket knife available. Queen Cutlery branded knives are the finest built user knives on the market.

 

Collectors and users of cutlery as well as anyone with an interest in American manufacturing history can be grateful that Queen continues to manufacture all their pocketknives in the original Schatt & Morgan factory in Titusville . Quality cutlery is produced there today in essentially the same way as it was produced there over one hundred years ago; real bench made cutlery with a human touch. This company remains a remarkable constant in small scale American manufacturing and is the third oldest industry in Titusville . All collectors should be grateful that the tradition of high quality cutlery manufacture continues at the Queen Cutlery Company.

Excerpts from: © May 15, 2005: all rights reserved, used by permission David Krauss is the author of American Pocketknives: The History of Schatt & Morgan and Queen Cutlery. His book is available online at: americanpocketknives.com

 

 

Queen Cutlery Co. would like introduce our new Master Cutler, Jeff Schley. Jeff is 46 years old and has been married to his wife, Julie, for 24 year, and is the father of two sons , Blaine & Jeffrey Jr.  He started his journey into the knife world right out of high school on October 1990, beginning in blade finishing.   Management saw major potential, moving him to set-up in the grinding room right away. To allow him to understand the full complexity of the factory, they moved him to maintenance for 2 years while attending Harry T Kerr Center in the evenings for Electrical and Hydraulics. This gave him an extensive knowledge of all the machines along with his knowledge of building a knife from start to finish. After all the years of training and schooling, it would eventually lead
him to become supervisor of both the grinding and blade finishing departments. 
     
After 13 years at Queen, he
transferred to Ontario Knife Company in Franklinville, NY, in 2003.  There he began a 5 year stint supervising the press and forge rooms and spent a few years being Special Projects Manager and Maintenance/Tool and Dye. His final  years at Ontario, he became Supervisor of press, forge, grinding, swedge, tempering, power coating, and handle rooms. Now coming home to Queen, He is serving as our Master Cutler.  Queen Cutlery has great confidence that he'll be able to improve the overall quality and bring new exciting designs to their line.

 

See our Queen Cutlery Co. Knives for sale.