A Catalog Reference · the seedbed — where the Case story began

Cattaraugus Cutlery Co.

Little Valley, New York · the Champlin/Case seedbed · coded like Case, but loose — and dated by the knife, not the stamp

Researched & written by Ethan Trex, a lifelong pocket-knife collector. · Reviewed August 2026

✓ Primary — read directly / record or page checked ~ Corroborated — reliable secondary ⚑ Archival — identified, off-line

The firm the Case dynasty grew out of — with two signatures of its own

Cattaraugus is the firm the Case dynasty grew out of: J.B.F. Champlin married into the Case family and built it at Little Valley. It's a distinct blend of the archetypes here — a patent but no digitized price (like Case), a trademark that dates a revival (like New York Knife Co.) — plus two of its own: its numbers are coded like Case but too loose to trust, and, uniquely, you can't date it by its tang stamp — the arched Little Valley mark barely changed for eighty years, so you date the knife, not the mark. ✓ primary · S1/S6

Walden had its cluster; Little Valley had Cattaraugus — “a Guarantee for Cutlery,” one of the largest works in the region, famous for the King of the Woods folding hunter and the WWII 225Q. This entry follows it from J.B.F. Champlin's 1882 jobbing house to the 1963 close, the family threads that tie it back to Case, the code you read with caution, and the reason a Cattaraugus is dated by its features.

Drawing sheet of U.S. Patent 1,258,396, 'Combined Knife and Wrench,' by Tint Champlin of Little Valley, N.Y., patented March 5 1918, showing a folding pocket knife with an integrated adjustable wrench, signed by the inventor. — **The founder's son, on a public-domain primary.** U.S. Patent **1,258,396**, “Combined Knife and Wrench,” filed Mar. 8 1917, **patented Mar. 5 1918** — inventor **Tint Champlin**, son of founder J.B.F. Champlin. This is the folding “wrench knife” (the *Alligator*); per the trade press it is the umbrella patent number marked on **all** Cattaraugus wrench-knife models. ✓ primary · S1

Corporate genealogy — a Champlin firm, the Case seedbed

1882J.B.F. Champlin & Son — a knife jobbing house at Little Valley (Champlin, in cutlery since ~1866; son Tint the partner). ✓ primary · S4
1886Champlin's Case brothers-in-law join; the firm is renamed the Cattaraugus Cutlery Company. ~ S10
1887The Case brothers leave — a barely one-year involvement. Cattaraugus stays a Champlin company. ~ S10
~1890Buys the Beaver Falls Cutlery machinery, builds a water-powered Little Valley factory → jobber becomes manufacturer. ~ S13
1903J.B.F. Champlin dies; son Tint Champlin takes over and builds a larger factory. ~ S12
1918Tint Champlin patents the folding “wrench knife” (U.S. 1,258,396; above). ✓ primary · S1
1942–45WWII: the 225Q utility knife (“Q” = Quartermaster) and TL-29 electrician's knives. ~ S7
1944 / 57Company-assigned patents (U.S. 2,350,494 hunting knife; U.S. 2,799,930) confirm the firm intact. ✓ primary · S2/S3
1963Closes (post-war decline). The name is later revived by A.G. Russell (1972). ~ S13

The loop back to Case. Two family threads tie this page to the Case one. J.B.F. Champlin married Theresa Case — sister of the four Case brothers — so Cattaraugus is where the Case cutlery story began (the brothers left in 1887 to build their own firms: Case Brothers Cutlery, then W.R. Case & Sons). And the master cutler who set Cattaraugus's quality, Charles Platts (Sheffield, ~1891), is the same Platts family whose C. Platts' Sons merged into W.R. Case & Sons in 1905 — and whose sons went on to found Western States Cutlery. ~ S10

The number — coded like Case, but loose

Cattaraugus did code the number (like Case, unlike New York Knife Co.'s plain sequence) — blade count, bolster, pattern, handle material. The catch: it applied the code loosely, and reassigned numbers, so a decode is a hint, not proof.

1 2 82 9

1 = one blade 2 = bolster 82 = pattern 9 = jigged bone → No. 12829, the King of the Woods

Proof the last digit is material: 22754 (Fiberloid) and 22759 (bone) are the same Doctor's knife. The “Q” is different: the famous 225Q is a fixed-blade knife outside this code — “225” is its hunting-knife pattern and “Q” = Quartermaster (a WWII military designation, not two blades and not “quality”). ~ S8 ⚑ S7

Coded, but don't overtrust it. Collector authorities warn Cattaraugus numbers “were not consistent to the point that they are a reliable reference,” and two published versions of the handle-material key disagree. Lean on the blade count, the last digit, and the named pattern — the bolster digit is essentially undocumented.

Patterns & materials — King of the Woods, and Rogers bone

The signature Cattaraugus pocket knife is the King of the Woods — a ~5¼″ swell-handle folding hunter, with and without a swing guard (its Bullet/#1920 equivalent). Beyond it (numbers from the collector references):

Pattern	What it is	Note
12819 / 12829	King of the Woods folding hunter	the signature; a model name used across frames
1-W / 3-W	the patented “wrench knife” / Alligator	the 1918 patent (plate above)
22929	Elephant Toenail / Sunfish	the fat double-end “pocket axe”
21087	Electrician's / TL-29 type	Cattaraugus was a major electrician's-knife maker
32695 / 32939	3-blade whittlers	a Cattaraugus strength
225Q	the 225Q — FIXED BLADE, not a folder	the brand's WWII fame (Quartermaster); context only

Handles: the signature is jigged bone (digit 9) from the Rogers Bone Co., its jigging nicknamed “Indian Trails”; Cattaraugus also used genuine stag, ebony/cocobolo, and — more than perhaps any American maker — exotic natural pearls (Gambier, Opal, Oriental, Peacock). Its celluloid was “Fiberloid”.

Two naming cautions. “Pyremite” is Remington's celluloid, not Cattaraugus's (which used generic “Fiberloid/composition”). And a Cattaraugus “Deer Slayer” turns up in some lists as a fixed-blade hunting knife — it is not a verified pocket pattern, and not the unrelated modern Rough Ryder knife of that name.

Dating a knife by the knife, not the stamp — Cattaraugus's signature wrinkle

The hard window is 1886–1963. But — uniquely in this guide — the tang stamp is not a fine-grained key: the arched “CATTARAUGUS CUTLERY CO. / LITTLE VALLEY, N.Y.” mark changed very little over eighty years. So you date a Cattaraugus by its stamped pattern number, blade shapes and pulls, bolsters, shield, and handle material — not by the stamp's typography.

The mark…	Reads as	The tell
arched CATTARAUGUS CUTLERY CO. / LITTLE VALLEY, N.Y.	1886–1963	the standard mark for the whole life of the firm — barely changed, so it dates the maker, not the decade.
CCC CO. + Little Valley, N.Y.; a 3-C-in-a-circle	variants	anchor on the “Little Valley” wording (a bare “CCC” is ambiguous); the 3-C circle skews 1950s.
blade etches: Indian-head, “Chief,” “King of the Woods,” “Little Injun”	sub-brands	these are blade etches, distinct from the tang stamp.

The trademark dates the revival. Read from the USPTO: there is no surviving original-maker federal registration. The “CATTARAUGUS” word mark's first use is May 11 1972 — nine years after the close — by A.G. Russell (who founded the Knife Collectors Club and revived the name); a modern holder added 2020–21 design marks. So, like New York Knife Co., a federal “Cattaraugus” mark points at the revival, never proves an original. (Whether the original firm held now-lapsed early registrations is an off-line question.) ✓ S6

The reuse trap. Genuine originals read “Little Valley, N.Y.” A knife marked Springdale, Ark., a Knife Collectors Club edition, Seki-Japan / stainless, an “FH-”/“CM-” code, a stamped modern year, or a 2020s design mark = a post-1963 revival. The subtle case: 1970s knives assembled from leftover original parts carry genuine markings but postdate the company.

What a knife cost — no digitized period price (like Case)

Honest result, and it matches the Case page: no digitized, dated period price for a Cattaraugus pocket knife could be confirmed. No original house catalog is digitized (only a modern reprint of a ~1910s catalog, carrying collector values, not period prices), and — a real structural point — many cutlery catalogs of the era printed no consumer prices at all (net prices lived on separate dealer sheets). The likeliest home of a dated retail price is a period mail-order magazine ad (Cattaraugus advertised in Boys' Life and the like); that's the open lead. This entry leads with what is provable. ⚑ archival

In period print

Cattaraugus Cutlery of Little Valley, N.Y. built its name on a warranty — “every blade warranted” — and dealers from Vermont to Oregon carried it. Its very first pocket knife, in 1892, was sent to Governor McKinley. Each quote was read on the original page; all are public-domain newspapers.

In the news · 1892

“the first [knife] made by the Cattaraugus Cutlery Company.”

A syndicated tariff item — the new company’s very first pocket knife was sent to Gov. William McKinley.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Wash. · Mar. 31, 1892. Library of Congress →

Advertisement · 1910

“just as good a knife as can be made. Each blade warranted.”

“Buy a pocket knife with the Cattaraugus brand on it” — from 25c to 75c and up.

True Northerner, Paw Paw, Mich. · Aug. 19, 1910. Library of Congress →

Advertisement · 1906

“28 patterns Pearl Handled Pocket Knives for Xmas.”

A front-page Christmas ad — “every knife warranted.”

Herald and News, West Randolph, Vt. · Dec. 13, 1906. Library of Congress →

Advertisement · 1914

“Pocket Knives — the best made.”

A hardware dealer’s line: Cattaraugus scissors, butcher knives and pocket knives.

Ashland Tidings, Ore. · Sept. 14, 1914. Library of Congress →

In the news · 1898

“one of the representative domestic cutlery houses.”

A domestic-vs-imported cutlery piece names Cattaraugus of Little Valley, N.Y.

Mexico Weekly Ledger, Mo. · Nov. 24, 1898. Library of Congress →

Advertisement · 1905

“Every Knife of this brand is warranted to be perfect.”

“Celebrated Cattaraugus Cutlery” — from the factory in Cattaraugus County, New York.

St. Johns Review, Ore. · Aug. 11, 1905. Library of Congress →

Sources

Primary sources are documents read directly; secondary are reliable leads. Full metadata (identifiers, URLs, quotes) lives in data/cattaraugus.json.

U.S. Patent 1,258,396 (“Combined Knife and Wrench,” Tint Champlin, 1918) — the flagship pocket patent & plate; plus company-assigned US 2,350,494 (1944) & US 2,799,930 (1957). Google Patents · PD · opened. ✓ S1–S3
Historical Gazetteer of Cattaraugus County, N.Y. (1893), the J.B.F. Champlin sketch — the 1882 founding & presidency. Internet Archive historicalgazett00adam · PD · via transcription (scan leaf pending). ✓ S4
USPTO / Justia — CATTARAUGUS word mark (Reg. 0992810, first use 1972, A.G. Russell) + the modern design marks — the revival anchor. And US 825,093 (Watson, 1906), opened to debunk the “Cattaraugus liner-lock patent” misattribution. ✓ S5/S6
National Archives Bill of Material T-JC7 (12/1/1942) — the 225Q = Quartermaster (secondhand via C. Rila). ⚑ S7
Secondary / leads: AllAboutPocketKnives (the numbering & material code); OldPocketKnives (“the arched stamp changed very little over 80 years”); Knife Talk (the Champlin/Case kinship, the A.G. Russell revival); Cutlery News Journal (the wrench-knife umbrella patent, the 1922 catalog); the Village of Little Valley & Historic Path; and the standing reference, Ritchie & Stewart, Cattaraugus Cutlery Co. ~ S8–S16