“WE XL” is stamped on the bolster of small barlows. The Phoenix Knife Company was organized in 1880 as the Central City Knife Company. Mr. Charles B. Avery was the founder. The name was changed in 1892 to the Phoenix Knife Company.
In 1896, John Chatillon & Sons purchased the firm, and moved the main offices to Fulton, New York. The knife factory was located on the Oswego River, on an island next to the Oswego Canal. The island was created by the canal which bypassed the rapids about two miles north of the village It flowed towards Fulton and Oswego. This island became a hub of industrial development consisting of seven factories.
The knife company was between the Sinclair Chair Company, and the Burroughs Brothers paper mill. On September 25, 1916, a fire started in the chair factory (which also housed the two main water pumps for the village) and within five minutes the whole factory was on fire. The fire burned all of the factories on the island, and part of the village. Phoenix went out of business at that time.
(Featured image) A Phoenix Knife Company box label, c 1900.
c 1892-1916