Charles Platts (1838-1900) was a Sheffield-born spring knife cutler.  His parents were apparently Charles (a spring knife cutler) and Elizabeth Platts, who lived in Crookesmoor.   Charles Jun. was apprenticed in 1852 and gained experience with the best makers, such as Joseph Rodgers & Sons.   In 1859, he married Sarah Ann, the daughter of George Nixon.  They began raising their family in Crookesmoor, but in 1862 they sailed for America.  Platts became superintendent at the American Knife Co in Reynolds Bridge, Connecticut.  After 1872, he directed the Northfield Knife Co, which near Reynolds Bridge (Anthony, 2011¹).  He supervised the manufacture of knives made by the traditional methods – using hand-forged blades – and recruited many Sheffield cutlers.  The firm used a Wostenholm look-alike mark: ‘UN-X-LD’ (‘unexcelled’).  

Charles and Sarah had five sons, all of whom were apprenticed into the trade.   One son, Harvey Nixon Platts (1866-1947), took a job at the Cattaraugus Cutlery Co in Little Valley, New York, in 1891.  While working there, H. N. Platts met his future wife Debbie Case, whom he married in 1892.  In the following year, Charles Platts himself moved to Little Valley with his family, again to work as a factory superintendent.  Soon Charles and all his sons were working at the Cattaraugus company.  They decided to start their own business.  In 1896, Charles and his five sons organized C. Platts & Sons Cutlery Co in Gowanda, New York.  One of their best customers was the Case family, which had formed Case Brothers & Co, also in Gowanda.  Case would buy Platts’ knives and mark them ‘Case’.  

In 1897, as the business expanded, the Platts moved into a larger building in Eldred, Pennsylvania.  In 1900, Charles Platts suffered a stroke at the factory and died in December that year, aged 62.  He had made knives for 48 years.  He was buried in Hillside Cemetery, Thomaston, Connecticut.  After his death, the company was restyled C. Platts’ Sons’ Cutlery Co, and the eldest son H. N. Platts took over.   At this point, the Case brothers wished to start their own factory, and so the Platts and Case families merged their interests and relocated to Bradford, Pennsylvania.   In 1905, Russ Case and H. N. Platts incorporated the business as W. R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co.   In 1911, H. N. Platts, suffering from silicosis, sold out and moved to the healthful climes of Colorado.  He launched the Western States Cutlery & Manufacturing Co, which continued to make high-quality pocket and hunting knives until the business was sold in 1982.  Meanwhile, the Case family became one of the best known names in the American knife industry.   The Platts’ story has been told in detail by descendant Harvey Platts (1978)²; and other books have been written on the Case family (Lockwood, 2005³; Boser and Osborne, 2006⁴).

1. Anthony, David L, ‘The Treasure of Northfield’, Knife World (November 2011)

^2. Platts, Harvey, The Knife Makers Who Went West (Longmont, Colorado, 1978)

^3. Lockwood, Brad, The Case Cutlery Dynasty: Tested XX (Paducah, Kentucky, 2005)

^4. Boser, Shirley, and Osborne, John R, W R Case & Sons Cutlery Company (Charleston, SC, 2006)