The Recollection of Quality Since 1867.
Keen Kutter is an American privately owned trademark of premium hardware, cutlery and outfitter goods for outdoor enthusiasts. The company, currently based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, designs, distributes and sells its products via company-owned catalogs and the Keen Kutter website as well as through authorized dealers in the United States. The trademark is owned by Val-Test® Group President, Russell Meeks.
History
Edward Campbell Simmons was born in Maryland in 1839 and moved with his merchant father to St. Louis, Missouri in 1846 At the age of seventeen he began his career in the wholesale hardware business on the bottom rung of the ladder as a cleaner/stocker for Child Pratt and Company.
1859 he entered the firm Wilson Levering and Waters as a clerk. This hardware business eventually evolved into E.C. Simmons and Co. IN 1874.
Born in 1839, one young man who creates one of the most
The year is 1859. A young man by the name Edward Campbell Simmons starts his first job as a clerk for for a local hardware dealer in St. Louis, MI.
In 1867, a young man named Edward Campbell Simmons handcrafted a unique type of axehead with an exceptionally thin blade.
Simmons’ need for this particular item was to compete against a wildly popular Lippincott axe, whose thin blade worked best on soft woods.
Without any premeditation, he wrote in pencil on that fresh pine wooden handle... Keen Kutter.
By 1880, E.C. Simmons went on to incorporate the Simmons Hardware Company & apply his signature Keen Kutter name to all of the company’s top-of-the-line cutting tools including axes, hatchets, saws, knives, scythes, adzes, bill hooks, shears, scissors, files, stones & razors. By the 1900s, E.C. Simmons grew the Keen Kutter catalogue to include every conceivable type of tool & hardware item needed by carpenters, mechanics, gardeners, farmers & handymen of any discipline. The mark of the Keen Kutter name stood as the 'Standard of America' for over five decades under the Simmons family name.
In 1940, Simmons merged with the Shapleigh Hardware Company. From there, the Keen Kutter catalog achieved remarkable success through innovative campaigns designed to simplify the job of the retailer & satisfy the customer. Shapleigh Hardware became one of the most extensive corporations of its kind with divisions in Wichita, Sioux City, Ogden, Toledo, New York, Minneapolis & St. Louis.
By 1950, the Keen Kutter warehouse space occupied over 1.5 million square feet & its pocket knife plant in New York was the largest production house in the United States.
Today, the Keen Kutter trademark is owned by the Val-Test® Hardware Group of Illinois. After Val-Test® acquired the trademark, limited use authorization was developed for a premiere collector's line of pocket knives manufactured by Schrade Cutlery, Frost Cutlery and most recently Bear & Son Cutlery Co. to remain committed to the finest quality made in the United States.
History
In 1867, Edward Campbell Simmons crafted a unique type of axe with an exceptionally thin blade best suited for soft woods.
Without any premeditation, he wrote in pencil on that fresh pine wooden handle... Keen Kutter.
By 1880, E.C. Simmons went on to incorporate the Simmons Hardware Company & apply his signature Keen Kutter name to all of the company’s top-of-the-line cutting tools including axes, hatchets, saws, knives, scythes, adzes, bill hooks, shears, scissors, files, stones & razors. By the 1900s, E.C. Simmons grew the Keen Kutter catalogue to include every conceivable type of tool & hardware item needed by carpenters, mechanics, gardeners, farmers & handymen of any discipline. The mark of the Keen Kutter name stood as the 'Standard of America' for over five decades under the Simmons family name.
In 1940, Simmons merged with the Shapleigh Hardware Company. From there, the Keen Kutter catalog achieved remarkable success through innovative campaigns designed to simplify the job of the retailer & satisfy the customer. Shapleigh Hardware became one of the most extensive corporations of its kind with divisions in Wichita, Sioux City, Ogden, Toledo, New York, Minneapolis & St. Louis.
By 1950, the Keen Kutter warehouse space occupied over 1.5 million square feet & its pocket knife plant in New York was the largest production house in the United States.
Today, the Keen Kutter trademark is owned by the Val-Test® Hardware Group of Illinois. After Val-Test® acquired the trademark, limited use authorization was developed for a premiere collector's line of pocket knives manufactured by Schrade Cutlery, Frost Cutlery and most recently Bear & Son Cutlery Co. to remain committed to the finest quality made in the United States.
Collectible interest
Items bearing the Keen Kutter trademark are considered highly collectible.
Jerry and Elaine Heuring, authors of Collector's Guide To Keen Kutter, have thousands of items from their private collection, identified and described in detail and evaluated from axes, braces, and bits, to calendars, pocket knives, razors, rules etc., all in alphabetical order for quick identification. Their special section dedicated to tool reproductions and fakes will certainly protect the collector from making bad purchases. In addition to the standard line of tools and utensils, there are hundreds of colorful, whimsical store displays, advertisements, and other unusual items all made by Keen Kutter considered highly collectible.
The Hardware Companies Kollector's Klub founded in 1995 is another great source of information for Keen Kutter collectors.[1]
Historial Awards
1904 World's Fair • Grand-Prize awarded to the Simmons Hardware Company for the Superior Excellence of Quality, Workmanship and Material to all Keen Kutter® Products by the International Jury of Awards at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The only prize of the kind ever awarded to a complete line of tools.
1904 World's Fair • Grand Sweepstake-Prize awarded to the Simmons Hardware Company for the Best Exhibit on the Grounds of any Kind by the International Jury of Awards at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Designed & built by Simmons' own Mr. William J. Britt.
1905 World's Fair • Highest-Award Gold Medal presented to the Simmons Hardware Company for the Superior Excellence of Quality and Finish to all Keen Kutter® Pocket Knives by the International Jury of Awards at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition.
Historical Exhibits
“Moving Picture of Hardware” display by Simmons Hardware Company at the World's Fair in 1904.
In 1904, Simmons Hardware Company created an incredible display called the "Moving Picture of Hardware" at the Palace of Manufactures at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Here is an excerpt from Louisiana and the Fair.
Perhaps the largest display made by a single firm in Manufactures Palace was that of the Simmons Hardware Company, of St. Louis, which occupied about 20,000 square feet near the center of the building with a unique, very ingenious, and most picturesque hardware exhibition. The exhibit imitated a large revolving windmill, playing fountains, a cataract, a stream of water through which an Indian paddled his canoe, a railroad running on levels, over viaducts and through tunnels, and a bank, dank and forbidding, along which a great snake ran in a sinuous course into its hole to reappear very soon to startle the gaze of passing crowds.[2]
“Made Only of Hardware” pictorial guide booklet by Simmons Hardware Company from the World's Fair in 1915.
In 1915, Simmons Hardware Company created an enormous display called "Made Only of Hardware" at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition. The exhibit, constructed entirely of retail-items, contained over 10,000 separate pieces of hardware & over 2,000 feet of chain. The designs & scenery reached a length of over 60 feet long & 32 feet high. Displays included the Clock (of axes & shovels), the Anvil Chorus (of hammers & saws), the Angel (of knives, chains & nails), the Fountain (of auger bits & wrenches), the Boat (of saws, levels & drills), the Waterwheel (of safety razors & chains), the Cornice (of knives & screwdrivers), plus several others.
A fascinating booklet with each display interrpreted can be found, here[3].
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Keen Kutter.
The Hardware Companies Kollector's Klub, retrieved 4 August 2013
"Louisiana and the fair. An exposition of the world, its people and their achievements, volume 09 | MU Digital Library, University of Missouri". dl.mospace.umsystem.edu. Retrieved 2024-01-18.
Simmons Hardware Co. (1915). Simmons Hardware Company's Exhibit at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition : 1915. <a href="https://archive.org/details/SectionalViewsOfSimmonsHardwareCompanysExhibitAtThePanama-pacific" rel="nofollow">Building Technology Heritage Library</a>
When Edward Campbell Simmons completed the first prototype to satisfaction, without any premeditation, he wrote in pencil on the fresh pine wooden axe: Keen Kutter.
At first, Keen Kutter referred to a particular kind of axe whose ultra-thin blade worked best on soft woods. By 1880, Simmons applied the name to all of the company’s top-of-the-line cutting tools including axes, hatchets, saws, knives, scythes, adzes, bill hooks, shears, scissors, files, stones & razors.
By 1900, the Keen Kutter catalogue included every conceivable type of tool & hardware item needed by carpenters, mechanics, gardeners, farmers & handymen of any discipline.
Merging with the Shapleigh Hardware Company in 1940, the Keen Kutter® catalog achieved remarkable success through innovative campaigns designed to simplify the job of the retailer & satisfy the customer. The Shapleigh Hardware Company became one of the most extensive corporations of its kind with divisions in Wichita, Sioux City, Ogden, Toledo, New York, Minneapolis & St. Louis.
By the turn of the century, Keen Kutter® warehouse space occupied over 1.5 million square feet & its pocket-knife plant in New York was the largest in the U.S.A.
Today, the Keen Kutter® trademark is owned by the Val-Test Hardware Group of Illinois. After Val-Test acquired the trademark, limited use authorization was developed for a premiere line of Keen Kutter® pocket-knives manufactured by Schrade Cutlery, Frost Cutlery and most recently Bear & Son Cutlery Co. to remain committed to the finest quality made in the U.S.A.
Val-Test would like to express immense gratitude to the legacy of E.C. Simmons & A.F. Shapleigh. Both gentlemen are founders of historically significant companies & greatly responsible for founding the wholesale hardware industry as we know it today.