Another A. Kastor and Bros. knife over 100 years old

Codger_64

Codger_64

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Here is a recent acquisition, a metal shell boys' knife. Very cheaply made yet fully functional. These type knives were made and imported for a seemingly brief time, c. 1902-1915, 1918-1930. I am still doing research on these patterns and haven't nailed the market span down more precisely. A. Kastor & Brothers were one of, if not the most promanent importers of cutlery to America from Europe. In order to meet their needs they opened their own cutlery in Ohligs-Solengen Germany, as well as continuing to buy from other cutlers there and throughout the region.

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This knife is marked "GERMANIA CUTL WORKS GERMANY", which was the factory run by Nathan Kastor. It is one of many patterns of this type imported to be a low pricepoint knife sold to hardware jobbers in large quantities for a retail price of twenty five cents down to as low as five cents. Made with the simplest construction possible, it has a single blade (some pattern are two blade jacks with a pen blade added to the pocket blade), two "iron" liners, a spring and two stamped steel shell covers with co-formed bolsters. Some will be found with a bail (shackle) and attached pocket chain ending in a loop that slips over a button to prevent loss. And yet the blades and springs are well ground and tempered. And they are actually cutlered though some do not have half stops.

Artwork on the covers of this genre varies. Sometimes it has a text stamped into it along with a "jigged" texture. Sometimes it is a geometric pattern (not seen as often) as the Germania shown. Sometimes it is a pictorial such as a flag or a young boy in a sailor suit. The surfaces may be plated and painted or "Japaned". A very few of the more expensive ones will have brass stamped covers, but "iron" is most common.

I have a small sampling of this type of knife with quite a few different tang markings, many of which are known or suspected marks sold by the Kastors. Others have marks made by Peter Altenbach (Swan Works).

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And I am collecting period hardware jobber catalogs to date cover art and tang markings, as well as compare cover dies as it seems several cutleries made very similar knives with minor changes in the stamping dies. A. Kastor & Bros. did not produce a catalog themselves but sold from sample rolls carried by their salesmen on the trains. Or if such period catalog illustrations exist, they have not surfaced in the Camillus archives or on the internet that I have seen.

Here is a c. 1902 jobber catalog showing a few patterns.
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I almost forgot. Not everyone knows the Kastor name. Perhaps I should give a brief history recap.

In the 1840's, German immigrants came over and started businesses in the major U.S. cities. Many of them specialized in dry-goods... hardware... imported through firms in New York and distributed from there as manufacturing was not advancing with products and volumes to keep up with the demands of the growing nation. Natchez and Vicksburg were the locations of two such hardware firms, H. Bodenheim and Meyers and Kastor. After the war circa 1865-1866, these men moved to New York City to become importers themselves, forming Bodenheim, Meyers and Kastor.

On the eve of the Franco-Prussian war, Kastor's nephew immigrated and went to work in his Uncle's firm. Not long afterward, the principal partner, Henry Bodenheim died and the firm struggled for several years before closing. Aaron Kastor's nephew was Adolph Kastor (Koester). Adoph borrowed money from his uncle and started his own import business specializing in knives. His three brothers (Sigmund, August and Nathan) joined him in the venture and the firm became Adolph Kastor and Brothers. Still needing more knives than they could procure from England and Europe, they first leased and then bought Camillus Cutlery and imported German cutlers to work there. SO that is the Kastor-Camillus connection.

Oh yeah... Henry Bodenheim was the grandfather of The Baer brothers, Albert and "Uncle Henry" Baer. Thus Albert came to acquire a job with Camillus leading to his ownershiop of major shares of that firm before leaving to start his own cutlery just pre-WWII. He acquired the remaining shares from the Kastor heirs in 1963. So there is the Ulster-Schrade-Imperial connection to Camillus. And to the Kastors.
 
Dang, Codger. That sounds almost as complicated as some of the family trees the little old ladies rattle off at family reunions. You know, where they say something like "Oh, she's Matilda's 2nd cousin's brother-in-law's step-daughter."
 
zzyzzogeton said:
Dang, Codger. That sounds almost as complicated as some of the family trees the little old ladies rattle off at family reunions. You know, where they say something like "Oh, she's Matilda's 2nd cousin's brother-in-law's step-daughter."
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Oh that is the simplified version. Albert Baer's two daughters married into the Kauffman and Furgal families. Betsy and Margie were given the Camillus stocks and their husbands and children ran Camillus while the patriarch remained the behind the scenes business director giving advice, hiring key employees and sending them business to the point of using Camillus as an ancillary production line for Imperial Schrade. And the business relationship continued even after Henry's and Albert's deaths right up until Schrade closed in 2004 and Camillus closed in 2007.
 
Thank you Harold. The history of this company is just too rich to allow it to fade into obscurity in my opinion. It isn't just the rote history of a business, but the interactions of many lives... the founders, the owners, the cutlers and other employees. It is a fascinating story of the evolution of the cutlery industry in America and Germany and how the principals adapted to the changing market, world events and events in their personal lives. Mr. Tom Williams, CAMCO here, spent his last years sharing the Camillus archives and his own first hand knowledge as a long time employee in hopes of seeing the history, if not the company itself, endure.

This knife I have shown here represents the earlier days when the nation was growing so fast that the very few domestic cutleries could not produce knives in quantiles to keep up with demand. "GERMANIA CUTL WORKS" was the name of the Kastors' German plant. Which also was an exporter of many European cutleries. This on top of selling everything their Camillus factory could turn out. This knife represents one small slice of that history.


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Here is another jobber catalog illustration of this genre of boys' knives, Norvell Shapleigh circa 1910. Enterprise was a Kastor mark used exclusively by this firm. And these cover patterns can be found in several other tang markings including Kastor's own Germania.

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Here is another example of the text-and-stag themed metal shell boys' knife. The jobber catalog example exactly like this one is seen above. As seen, the example I just got (still in the mail) is a two blade jack with the added pen blade.

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This one is marked Dixon Cutlery Co., Germany. A wholesale importer's brand. Research reveals thus:
Polk's New York Copartnership & Corporation Directory, 1915: Dixon Cutlery Co. (RTN) (Emil Kaufmann) 119 E. 16th.
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And further, via Mr. Linton's search,
Geo. Borgfeldt Co., "Sole distributor for . . . Dixon Cutlery Co.," Hardware World, July, 1919.
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Thus Dixon was an actual company and, at least in 1919, Borgfeldt was the merchant/jobber for this marking. It is suspected that "Dixon" is a Kastor mark and that may very well be true. If so, Kastor either made (in their Germania plant) or sourced the mark for export to Dixon, who sold to Borgfeldt, who sold to retailers who sold to the public.

This particular text theme would of course be unheard of in today's world where even a fingernail file is considered a weapon in a school. But for the most of last century, it was most common for a boy to own and carry a small knife with him wherever he went, including to school.
 
At less than 20 cents per knife on the school boy knife they needed to make a lot of knives. I cant see anyone advertising a school knife today.
great info as usual Michael!
 
The common retail for the single blade was a dime. Two blades and the chain commanded a few cents more.
 
Thank you Harold. Just a bit of cutlery history that has been slipping through the cracks. The growing demands for pocket cutlery (at every price point) and difficulty with importing sufficient quantities due to taxes and war led directly to the growth of domestic cutleries, albeit with imported cutlers and in some cases, machinery.
 
Hi Codger
Love seeing these old knives. If you take a look back in the history of Knife World magazine, there was an extensive article published in March of 2009 about Adolph Kastor, his brothers and their connections to Germany. Quite a bit of information in that and the follow-up article covering the Kastor/Camillus tang stamps up to 1947. Its a common misconception about the name of the German plant, which was actually not called the Germania Cutlery Works. That was determined to be a brand name only used on a number of their knives. The image you have posted above actually contains the name of the plant. I put quite a lot of time, documentation and research into those articles. I wouldn't trade that experience for the world! Hope this helps you and the readers out there in their quest for more knowledge about this great company.
 
wizman217 said:
Hi Codger
Love seeing these old knives. If you take a look back in the history of Knife World magazine, there was an extensive article published in March of 2009 about Adolph Kastor, his brothers and their connections to Germany. Quite a bit of information in that and the follow-up article covering the Kastor/Camillus tang stamps up to 1947. Its a common misconception about the name of the German plant, which was actually not called the Germania Cutlery Works. That was determined to be a brand name only used on a number of their knives. The image you have posted above actually contains the name of the plant. I put quite a lot of time, documentation and research into those articles. I wouldn't trade that experience for the world! Hope this helps you and the readers out there in their quest for more knowledge about this great company.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification and correction!
 
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