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Has anyone heard of this brand of knife, or know anything about them? My dad had 2 when I was a kid, fairly high quality conventional sheath knives, but the steel (carbon) was hard as all get out, brittle in fact as I recall. Just curious as to what part of the country they were from, time period etc.

Thanks.

forepaw

Google is your friend...

KINFOLKS, INC., LITTLE VALLEY, NY

c 1926-1957

The company was started by three cousins, Tint C. Champlin, Dean Case, and Russell Case. All three were directly related to the heads of the Case and Cattaraugus Cutlery Companies. Both may have been good reasons to choose �Kinfolks� to be the company name. In 1929, Dean Case and his father, Jean Case, purchased the company from the other cousins. At that time, another line marked �Jean Case� was introduced. Most Kinfolk knives are fixed blade knives; pocket knives are rare. Kinfolks also made a full line of straight razors. In 1957, Kinfolks was sold to the Robeson Cutlery Company.

Don't know a thing about the knives apart from what I just read, but I like the name...

Howdy Ron,

Thanks for the post. Amazing that their little company survived the depression, and spun off another company as well.

forepaw

Kinfolks made a wide variety of fixed blade knives including knife sets, kitchen cutlery and camp hatchets. As a general rule, you can tell their war production knives apart from the rest in that the hilts were made from plastic and not the usual brass. The metal went to the war effort.