Aerial Cutlery Company was one of the early companies that produced transparent knives, “picture knives,” to collectors. Aerial started in Duluth, Minnesota in 1909, and was founded by Thomas Madden, Chris, Richard, and Fred Jaeger. The company employed 186 men in the Duluth operation. In 1912, the firm purchased the Morris Cutlery Company of Morris, Illinois, and then relocated to Marinette, Wisconsin.
Pocket knives and other cutlery were the firm’s main source of income through WW1. By 1925, the firm added barber and beauty supplies. Eventually, pocket knives were phased out. By the late 1940s, only a few patterns were being manufactured. Many of Aerial’s knives were made by other cutlery manufacturers, and delivered to them as skeleton knives (without scales). Aerial cutlers then placed picture handle scales on them. Several thousand of these knives were discovered in a warehouse in the early 1970s. These knives were all in mint condition. Some of these knives were used to counterfeit other knives, Winchester in particular.
Aerial Cutlery box label, c 1925.
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(1913)
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(1924)
c 1912-1950