Top Flight American Cutlery
Top Flight American Cutlery
Ellicottville Mayor John Burrell gives family cutlery company new life
According to Mayor John Burrell of Ellicottville, over the years, there were 60 cutlery companies within a 100-mile radius of Ellicottville, and 32 of these were either started by, owned by, or run by members of his ancestors, the Case family. Now the last living knife maker of the Case family, Burrell has recently founded a new cutlery company, Top Flight Early American Cutlery. From a long line of innovators, Burrell continues the Case legacy by reaching a whole new generation of knife enthusiasts and collectors through a “storefront” that his ancestors could have only dreamed of: the world wide web.
Harold & Addy Burrell
If the name “Case” in relation to knives sounds familiar, it should, as the famed W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co. is one of the biggest names in American knife manufacturing. Now headquartered in Bradford, PA, W.R. Case & Sons is actually just one of many Case companies that can trace its roots just nine miles west of Ellicottville to Little Valley. “J.B.F. Champlin started a cutlery company in Little Valley,” Burrell explained. “He was married to Theresa Case. Her four brothers joined his company, including my great grandfather, Jean Case.” While the four brothers left Little Valley to homestead in Nebraska for a few years, they returned to Little Valley, and in 1896, three of the brothers, including Jean, started Case Brothers Cutlery Co. As a teen, Burrell’s grandmother, Addy Case Burrell, ran the office, a building that can still be seen at 410 Fair Oak Street. Although the Little Valley factory burned down in 1912, the village of Springville built them a new factory, part of which is now Steelbound Brewery.
Unfortunately, the company was never able to fully recovery from the devastating fire, and Case Brothers Cutlery went out of business in 1915. “The members of the Case family that were still part of Case Brothers went to work at W.R. Case & Sons in Bradford,” said Burrell. This group included Burrell’s great grandfather, grandfather, and great uncle Jean Case, who went on to found Kinfolks Cutlery, a new company in Little Valley, with two of his cousins, both sons of the original Case brothers, W.R. Case and J.B.F. Champlin. Eventually, Burrell’s grandfather, Harold Burrell, became plant manager of Kinfolks and in 1940, decided to open his own company with his wife, Addy, and Burrell Cutlery Company was born!
Their niche was barber straight razors, which were in high demand as German and English production of these sought-after blades slowed during the war years. In 1950, Harold passed away and Burrell’s father took over the company. At that point in time, straight razors fell in popularity to safety razors, so the cutlery company decided to switch production to household kitchen knives. “Our niche was primarily supermarkets - large chains like First National, A&P, and Safeway - across the country,” said Burrell. Having grown up in the company, it’s no surprise that Burrell learned to do most operations on most machines in the factory. Upon returning home from the army in 1967, he began working for the company full-time and became president.
In the 1970s, Burrell took production in a new direction as business was impacted by Pacific Rim manufacturers. He explained, “During the 1970s through the early 2000s, we made all of W.R. Case & Sons’ household cutlery and did a tremendous amount of work for Cutco in Olean and Sog in Seattle.” One of their most popular products was a small give-away knife - a tomato slicer with a plastic handle - made for Rena-ware of Seattle. “We manufactured over 22.5 million knives for them that were sold in 29 different countries around the world.”
Burrell Cutlery lasted 66 years until international competition forced them to close their doors in 2006. Hardly one to slow down, Burrell went on to work for a construction company and served as town supervisor. Now Ellicottville’s mayor, Burrell is a three-year survivor of a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma - a condition that led to a bone marrow transplant that left him in bed for 21 days. During that time, Burrell considered the large accumulation of his family memorabilia, cutlery items, and his brother’s large knife collection. Though not a collector himself, Burrell joined a private Facebook group for purveyors of collectible Case knives and discovered a global community of Case enthusiasts.
When this group dissolved due to a member dispute, Burrell decided to begin his own private group: Top Flight Early American Cutlery by John Burrell of the Case family. Now over 700 members strong, this first phase of Burrell’s business has allowed him to share and sell knives and razors from his collection that he is able to authenticate with the kind of knowledge only a family insider could have. Although he is still selling items from his own collection, Burrell now sells knives for other collectors in this group - Phase II - which has been very popular.
“As I’ve gone through and cleaned up all the different things I have, like parts and pieces of knife blades, elk antler, brass, blade guards, I realized I have enough to start making quite a large number of custom-made knives,” said Burrell. Indeed, the third phase of Burrell’s company now involves him building a shop in Ellicottville inside an old barn. With a brick floor and steel on the walls, Burrell will soon be buying machinery to make his custom knives. “Hopefully, I’ll be in production later this fall,” he said. “I’ll start with six patterns designed by me to be done to commemorate the six members of my family that were in Burrell Cutlery.”
Each blade will include a serial number, as a limited quantity will be made. “My grandfather’s brand when he started Burrell Cutlery was Top Flight,” Burrell noted. “He had a high school student design the logo that he would use, and I’m still using it today. Part of the reason why is that the young high school artist eventually became my father-in-law, Bill Lowry!”
“I think the future of knives is good,” said Burrell. “Cutco, Ka-Bar, and W.R. Case (the last remaining Case family companies) are the leaders, in my opinion, and there are a lot of great custom knife makers as well. Like fire and the wheel, the knife is one of the oldest tools there is.”
And so, the Case family legacy continues! Search for Burrell’s private group, “Top Flight Early American Cutlery by John Burrell” on Facebook to join the growing community of Case collectors. To learn more about the Case family’s history in the cutlery industry, read “The Case Cutlery Dynasty: Tested XX” by Brad Lockwood, great-great-grandson of Andrew Case, one of the founding brothers.