@Luecke3262 and I were talking about this the other day and thought others may be interested too. Below is some info I have collected on the Robeson/Case connection. My source is an old Power Point presentation prepared by a past WR Case Historian in 2011. While Case never owned Robeson, the company was ran by a Case relative for a number of years.
Robeson continued to make excellent pocketknives throughout the 1920's and 1930's, but stiff competition from German cutlers after WWI took a toll on sales. By the beginning of World War II, Robeson was in serious trouble. The company was offered for sale and was purchased by Mr. Saul Frankel. He hired Mr. Emerson Case of the famous Case Cutlery family in 1940, and pretty much gave him a free hand, as General Manager, in revitalizing the company. Emerson Case did not disappoint him. Mr. Case spent long hours at the factory and in the offices, and made frequent trips extolling the virtues of the company and its products. Today, he would be referred to as a "workaholic". His work ethic both costly to him and paid dividends. He had married his first wife, Helen, while working at Kinfolks Cutlery. After his move to Robeson, he was busily advancing The Robeson Cutlery Company, while she was very active in church and social work. They grew apart and subsequently divorced in 1941. Emerson Case continued to work long and hard hours at Robeson, often working late. He frequented a local diner for his meals, and grew very familiar with a certain waitress there. When an opening for a billing secretary at the offices became available, he hired her for that position. Familiarity progressed to love, and he and Bessie Sheppard were married, and raised their family in Perry, New York. They were remained married until Emerson Case died suddenly in 1975.
The time during and after WWII saw Robeson once again among the top tier of cutlery manufacturers, thanks mostly to the tireless efforts of Emerson Case. They had several contracts during WWII to produce the M-3 Commando or Trench knives for the United States Army. They produced machetes, and Mark II "Ka-Bar" type knives for the United States Navy and The Marine Corps, as well as the Mark I knives, and so called "Shark" knives for the Navy. They produced both a three and four blade verson of their 214 pattern scout/utility knives with bone handles for the Army and also a two blade easy open bone handled jack knife. They made wood handled TL-29 electrician's knives for the Army Signal Corps. Stevenson branded metal handled, four blade scout/utility knives were manufactured with the proprietary Robeson screw-driver and cap-lifter/tin-opener blades, leaving one to conclude they were manufactured by Robeson. These knives do not have tang marks, but the bails are marked, "STEVENSON - 1943". Stevenson bail marked knives with the later standardized MIL-K required blades do exist, as well. Whether or not they were made by Robeson is anyone's guess, I suppose. The majority of military collectors/writers conclude that they were. The Robeson Cutlery Company consistently earned the highest ratings for their defense contract work during World War II.
After WWII, Emerson Case was made company president, and continued to be very innovative. He developed, in 1950, a heat treating process for stainless steel blades that is still used world wide today and virtually unsurpassed in its effectiveness. He called the process, "Frozen Heat", and it was used on both pocket and kitchen cutlery. A fifty year old Robeson Frozen Heat kitchen knife is as good today as anything manufactured by anyone anywhere in the world. Frozen Heat sets sell routinely on Ebay for not very much money, and would be the best knives in almost anyone's kitchen. I suggest buying a set, and putting them to good use.
About 1955, Emerson Case also developed a line of knives with tungsten carbide applied to one side of the blade edge. This was a complicated process, and the knives' virtues were not readily understood by many people. The problem was the knife was designed to be sharpened only on the side that did not have the tungsten carbide layer. Honing the knife in that manner left a fine microscopic serrated edge of tungsten as the cutting edge of the knife. The knives were called, "Flame Edge", and were made in jack knife, stockman, and hunting knife patterns, as well as kitchen knives.
Robeson continued to make excellent pocketknives throughout the 1920's and 1930's, but stiff competition from German cutlers after WWI took a toll on sales. By the beginning of World War II, Robeson was in serious trouble. The company was offered for sale and was purchased by Mr. Saul Frankel. He hired Mr. Emerson Case of the famous Case Cutlery family in 1940, and pretty much gave him a free hand, as General Manager, in revitalizing the company. Emerson Case did not disappoint him. Mr. Case spent long hours at the factory and in the offices, and made frequent trips extolling the virtues of the company and its products. Today, he would be referred to as a "workaholic". His work ethic both costly to him and paid dividends. He had married his first wife, Helen, while working at Kinfolks Cutlery. After his move to Robeson, he was busily advancing The Robeson Cutlery Company, while she was very active in church and social work. They grew apart and subsequently divorced in 1941. Emerson Case continued to work long and hard hours at Robeson, often working late. He frequented a local diner for his meals, and grew very familiar with a certain waitress there. When an opening for a billing secretary at the offices became available, he hired her for that position. Familiarity progressed to love, and he and Bessie Sheppard were married, and raised their family in Perry, New York. They were remained married until Emerson Case died suddenly in 1975.
The time during and after WWII saw Robeson once again among the top tier of cutlery manufacturers, thanks mostly to the tireless efforts of Emerson Case. They had several contracts during WWII to produce the M-3 Commando or Trench knives for the United States Army. They produced machetes, and Mark II "Ka-Bar" type knives for the United States Navy and The Marine Corps, as well as the Mark I knives, and so called "Shark" knives for the Navy. They produced both a three and four blade verson of their 214 pattern scout/utility knives with bone handles for the Army and also a two blade easy open bone handled jack knife. They made wood handled TL-29 electrician's knives for the Army Signal Corps. Stevenson branded metal handled, four blade scout/utility knives were manufactured with the proprietary Robeson screw-driver and cap-lifter/tin-opener blades, leaving one to conclude they were manufactured by Robeson. These knives do not have tang marks, but the bails are marked, "STEVENSON - 1943". Stevenson bail marked knives with the later standardized MIL-K required blades do exist, as well. Whether or not they were made by Robeson is anyone's guess, I suppose. The majority of military collectors/writers conclude that they were. The Robeson Cutlery Company consistently earned the highest ratings for their defense contract work during World War II.
After WWII, Emerson Case was made company president, and continued to be very innovative. He developed, in 1950, a heat treating process for stainless steel blades that is still used world wide today and virtually unsurpassed in its effectiveness. He called the process, "Frozen Heat", and it was used on both pocket and kitchen cutlery. A fifty year old Robeson Frozen Heat kitchen knife is as good today as anything manufactured by anyone anywhere in the world. Frozen Heat sets sell routinely on Ebay for not very much money, and would be the best knives in almost anyone's kitchen. I suggest buying a set, and putting them to good use.
About 1955, Emerson Case also developed a line of knives with tungsten carbide applied to one side of the blade edge. This was a complicated process, and the knives' virtues were not readily understood by many people. The problem was the knife was designed to be sharpened only on the side that did not have the tungsten carbide layer. Honing the knife in that manner left a fine microscopic serrated edge of tungsten as the cutting edge of the knife. The knives were called, "Flame Edge", and were made in jack knife, stockman, and hunting knife patterns, as well as kitchen knives.
