The Schrade Cutlery Company had its roots in New York City in the Press Button Knife Company, founded in 1892 by George Schrade, an inventor from Sheffield, England. He did not have enough capital to start making knives, so Schrade sold part of the Walden Knife Company. The company’s unusual name arose from its first knife design, an automatic opening pocket knife in 1892. In 1903, Schrade sold all of his interest to the Newman Press Button Knife Co. of the Walden Knife Company. The following year, Schrade founded the Schrade Cutlery Company in Walden.

In 1906-07 Schrade patented an improved line of knives with a toggle side control button and sliding safety switch. Later developed in slightly modified form as the Presto series, the Schrade switchblade dominated the automatic knife market in the United States for the next fifty-five years. In the 1920s, Schrade bought the defunct Walden company in order to obtain their stock of handle material for his knives.

In the years 1911-1916 he was based in Solingen, Germany, where he had a small workshop. There Schrade developed a new type of knife switch that he named the Springer. However, in 1916 the German government seized all of Schrade’s assets in Germany to aid its wartime production. Although Schrade returned to the United States, the type was produced in Solingen for many years.

In 1917, Schrade licensed the “flylock switchblade” design to the Challenge Cutlery Company, which he then joined. Schrade watched the interest in his products.

In 1928, the Challenge Cutlery Co. closed after the death of its owner Karel F. Wiebusch. Schrade founded a new company, Geo. Schrade Knife Co. in Bridgeport, which acquired a gun manufacturing facility from the old Challenge Cutlery property. At the new company, Schrade produced Presto switches as well as Jack jacks and other low-end pocket knives. George Schrade died in 1940 (According to [8] George Schrade died in 1945), and Geo. Schrade Knife Co. was sold by her sons in 1956 to the Boker Knife Co. in Newark, New Jersey, but the company closed in 1958 after Congress passed a law banning the sale of switches. Schrade’s other company, Schrade Cutlery Co., was sold in 1946 to Imperial Knife Associated, becoming Schrade-Walden Cutlery Co., Inc.

Baers purchased the Schrade Cutlery Company in 1946 from C. Louis Schrade and renamed it the Schrade Walden Cutlery Corporation, a division of the Imperial Knife Associated Companies group. The Schrade-Walden division was moved from Walden, New York to Ellenville, New York after a fire consumed the plant in 1958, although the two companies would maintain separate manufacturing facilities. Imperial Knife had positive economic growth until the late 1970s, but as the conglomerate entered the 1980s, consolidation took place and the company divested itself of various holdings in order to streamline management.

In 1983, Albert M. Baer took it private to fend off hostile investors by purchasing all remaining shares in the company. The company changed its name in 1985 to Imperial Schrade Corp. and Walter Gardiner was appointed president. All US operations were consolidated under one roof in Ellenville. In the 1990s, the company entered the multi-tool market and Baers was inducted into the Blade Magazine Hall of Fame.

In July 2004, when the company celebrated its 100th anniversary. anniversary, the Ellenville factory was closed. The Schrade name was purchased by Taylor Brands LLC, which continues to manufacture products under the Schrade brand, as well as the old Uncle Henry knives, Imperial & Smith & Wesson knives.

In July 2016, Smith and Wesson Holding Corporation announced that the Battenfeld Technologies division had purchased Taylor Brands.