via: Warther Cutlery

Becoming familiar with his very first pocket knife at age 5, Ernest “Mooney” Warther began whittling away into wood and bone. After lots of use and soon becoming unsatisfied with store-bought knives and their inability to hold a good sharp edge, Mooney began to design and make his own knives. While making his own knives and seeing how his sharp edges were holding their shape while carving ebony wood and ivory, he was confident that he could make a great kitchen knife.

In 1902 at age 17, he produced his first kitchen knife for his mother. It wasn’t long after his mother spread the word as she was thoroughly impressed, that Mooney began taking orders for his well crafted knives, and so began the family business. In 1923 Mooney quit his day job at a steel mill and began to invest his time and energy into his love of carving and making kitchen knives. In the 1940’s Mooney had taught the art of knife making to his two sons, Tom and Dave, and as Dave returned from WWII in 1945, he took over the E. Warther & Sons knife business, giving Mooney more time to focus on carving. Growing the business and growing sales by getting into corporate gift programs at companies as big as Ford, by the end of the 1940’s Ernest Warther & Sons began leaving their name on their knives, but it wasn’t until 1954 when Dave finally made it official by incorporating the business as E. Warther & Sons Inc.

With the business continually growing, they moved out of the old 10′ x 15′ workshop and into a 40′ x 40′ building with a museum on the main level, and the workshop in the lower level. Now with the family business still going strong holding the American family tradition since 1902, Warther Cutlery is in its 3rd and 4th generation of family business making world class knives for such respected people as Ronald Regan, Gerald Ford, Nelson Mandela, George Bush Sr, George Bush Jr, and Lloyd Wright.

via: Warther Cutlery