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The Wawarsing Historical Society and Knife Museum
Keeping America's knife-making history alive since 2013.

The Hudson Valley in the late 1800s and early 1900s produced 50 to 70 percent of all the knives sold in this country. Those knives came mostly from a small village of a few thousand people called Walden NY. It is a long (150 year) story. It is also an important part of this country’s history and heritage. I have known 5 generations of cutlers from this area and spent several years of my childhood in Walden and then Ellenville NY, which is where Schrade moved to from Walden in 1958. I have always had a fascination with this history and its people. I have written several articles and a book The Collectors Guide to Switchblade Knives which revolves around this segment of our country’s past, and the people who lived it.

While I have always had an abiding interest in this topic, it was after I retired that I had the opportunity to peruse my interest. When Schrade was in Ellenville, I assisted as a curator for the factory collection and served as the antiquities resource for the firm. I also did some customer shows on the East Coast to promote and explain the history behind the product. Schrade in Ellenville NY closed in 2004. Since that time the present owners, The Taylor Family, have gone out of their way to help promote and keep alive the vibrant American story of the cutlery industry in the Hudson Valley.

Around 15 years ago when almost all of the Knife companies of the Hudson valley were mostly closed the idea of having a museum to preserve this heritage came into being. Frankly I cannot begin to explain all of the difficulties that this encompasses. Especially when you are working with a minimum of people and even less funding, especially in NYS you cannot imagine the amount of licenses, charters , and bureaucratic agencies, the list is endless. NYS allows the ownership and possession on automatic knives (switchblades) if you have a hunting, fishing, or trapping license. However it had no stipulation for the display of these artifacts. Therefore I had to write a bill, which took 8 years to become a law so that these items could be legally displayed. This was important because Automatic knives were always the most popular and biggest selling models. Walden knife, which made Press button (an early G. Schrade Patent) and Schrade were the main producers of this style of knife. Telling this history without explaining the part these items played and without examples of these artifacts would be like telling the story of World War ll and leaving out the atomic bombing of Japan it was a vital part of the story.

When Schrade closed in Ellenville, the Schrade factory collection was sold. it took with it a tremendous legacy of history in the form of artifacts. In fact it was mainly thought that a museum would be impossible since the artifacts had been sold to the 4 corners of the world. I was a curator for that collection and have been collecting for 60 years I know what was in the collection and we have put together a collection of displays that equals and in some ways (for we encompass not only Schrade but the other 15 or 20 companies that made up this history as well) surpasses it. Our battles with the myriad paper work and licenses have one by one been overcome. All this has been done with virtually no recognition or financial help. I realize that in our society today there are many good causes and history is probably not number one on most agendas. I understand that, all I can say in response, is that those who forget the mistakes of the past are destined to relive them. I believe that is already happening.
We have taken each problem day by day and I am truly pleased to announce that we will be opening our doors on July 12, 2014. While as time goes on we hope to expand and upgrade our facilities I do feel that anyone who has the opportunity to come to our museum will be able to get a unique insight into a remarkable time frame of our country’s history.

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