By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
LITTLE VALLEY — The second annual Village of Knives show this past weekend at the Cattaraugus County Fairgrounds showcased much of the Village of Little Valley’s cutlery history.
The Village of Knives show at the Corporate Building spilled over into the Domestic Building, drawing about 90 dealers, twice as many as last year with twice as many tables of knives on display.
John Burrell of Ellicottville, owner of Top Flight Early American Cutlery, and Brad Lockwood, are both descendants of the Case Family, which begat so many cutlery companies Cattaraugus County and neighboring Bradford, Pa., in the 1800s and early 1900s, are the show’s promoters.
Lockwood has recently written “The Case Cutlery Dynasty: Tested XX,” which traces the history of the Case Brothers and the nearly 30 area cutleries they created. Cattaraugus County really was the center of the cutlery world for many decades.
“We try to do something special every year,” Lockwood said. This year he and Burrell, the Ellicottville mayor, decided to conduct an archaeological dig at the site of two former knife plants in Little Valley.
Lockwood smiled as he showed two glass-covered wooden display boxes containing mostly rusty knife blades from the Case Brothers Cutlery, which operated from 1888 to 1912 when it was destroyed by fire, and Cattaraugus Cutlery, which operated from1890 to 1910, that had been recovered from the former Little Valley sites on Thursday. At one time, the dozens of cutleries in a 50-mile radius of Little Valley manufactured more knives than Western Europe. Most of the men who made the knives were immigrants who honed their skills in Europe.
Lockwood and Burrell took turns leading guided yours of Little Valley’s cutlery history on a horse drawn wagon over the course of the Village of Knives event.
The Village of Knives II show was probably the largest concentration of Case knives in the world over the weekend, according to Lockwood.
The first Village of Knives show last year drew 3,000 people to Little Valley for the event. This year’s attendance was closer to 5,000. There were 96 vendors from all over the country represented at Village of Knives this year. People from many states attended to look to add to their collections as well.
A limited number of two commemorative pocket knives for Village of Knives II were made at Case Knives Bradford, Pa. plant. Burrell also crafted about 40 separate commemorative knives in his Ellicottville shop
The most unique Case-made objects at the show were two Case double-action revolvers once owned by Annie Oakley. Few people — even collectors are aware Case ever made revolvers.
The owner is Johnnie Mitchell, an insurance executive from Ashland City, Tenn., said Oakley died with a Case revolver in her purse.
“I’ve been collecting knives since I was 10 years-old,” Mitchell told the Olean Star on Friday. He only brought a portion of the 9,000 knives in his collection, many of which were made by Case Brothers and other Little Valley cutleries in their heyday.
He said his most valued knife is an elephant toenail or stag handled, made by Case Brothers in the early 1900s in Little Valley. “It was my father’s knife, which I played with a lot whenI was a kid.” After his father died, the knife when to one of his brothers in a lottery. Later, he traded his new pickup truck and $10,000 to his brother for the knife.
One of the attendees, Pete Sciarrino of Erie, Pa., said he read about Village of Knives II online. “This is very impressive,” he said as he looked over a display of Gary Truhn of Akron, N.Y. “There are a couple of brands I collect” — Queen and Shatt & Morgan of Titusville, Pa.
Truhn had a variety of old and new knives and straight razors on display. “I’ve been collecting since 1962 and I’m 84 now,” he said. “I usually go to gun shows.”
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All Rights Reserved. Star News LLC. Eric M. Firkel.
