Camillus Cutlery Co.
In 1876, Adolph Kastor, a 20 year old immigrant from Germany, formed A. Kastor & Company on Canal Street in New York City to import quality cutlery from Germany and England. In 1897 Kastor contracted with Charles Sherwood of Camillus, New York to provide his knives. Kastor eventually purchased the small factory that employed 20 men in 1902 and the name Camillus Cutlery Co. was adopted. The one story factory in Camillus was expanded and new equipment and techniques were developed to increase production to meet the needs of the growing American market. In the coming years, Kastor turned the Camillus factory into one of the major knife suppliers in the United States and production totaled 902,976 knives in 1910. The small one story factory perched on the banks of Nine Mile Creek had now grown to 6 buildings and employed 200 workers.

During World War I the American doughboys were provided with a Camillus folding knife & spoon courtesy of the Red Cross.

With the beginning of World War II, the Camillus factory geared up to meet the Allied Forces knife requirements. During 1942 - 1945 more than 15 million military knives were produced including the U.S.M.C. Raider Stilletto and 7” Fighting Knife.

Camillus became the leading private label manufacturer of quality sporting and pocket knives in the world. Over 20 different brands were manufactured at the Camillus factory.

A tradition of manufacturing quality knives continued due to the dedicated skilled craftsmen that produced more than 2 million knives annually untill the Camillus factory was closed in February of 2007.

Union Cutlery Company
In 1897 an association of 38 men in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania formed a partnership known as Tidioute Cutlery Company, which is now widely considered to be the beginnings of Ka-Bar’s history.

The Tidioute Cutlery Company was dissolved in 1900 and the assets were purchased by Wallace R. Brown who formed a new corporation, known as the Union Razor Company in 1902.

In 1909 the company changed its name from Union Razor Company to Union Cutlery Company. The factory was moved to Olean, New York in 1912.
The 1920’s was a transition period of mixed markings which embellished the blades and handles of the older Union Razor knives and newer model Union Cutlery knives. During this period trademarks like OLCUT, KEENWELL, and the now famous and KA-BAR were used.

Soon after the start of World War II, the Union Cutlery Company submitted a Ka-Bar branded knife to the U.S. Marine Corps for issue to the fighting forces. In 1952 the Ka-Bar name had achieved such a high level of fame that the company changed it’s name to Ka-Bar Cutlery, Inc.
The Brown family sold Ka-Bar Cutlery, Inc. to two Olean businessmen in 1961 and the company has changed hands several more times.

How KA-BAR Got Its Name:
Evidence points to a letter the company received from a fur trapper. He wrote, in very rough English, that his gun had jammed and he had to rely on his knife to kill a wounded bear that was attacking him. In thanking the company for their quality product the trapper described using his knife to kill the bear. All that was legible of his scrawled writing was “k a bar”. The company was so honored by this testimonial that they adopted this phrase
and used it as their trademark, KA-BAR.