culpeper
10-05-2008, 02:44 PM
A quick interview with Morgan Taylor of Taylor Cutlery.
Taylor has sent me several knives to evaluate which is sort of cool. I will be posting my evaluations in the knife test forum in the near future. But I wanted to gather some information about the company in general first. Morgan Taylor took some time to share his thoughts with us.
1. What is the history of Taylor Brands LLC like when and how did you guys get started in the knife and tool business?
As explained by Stewart Taylor:
"Stewart Taylor graduated from Emory & Henry College (Emory Va.) in 1974. Taylor Cutlery started doing business in 1975 by importing from Seki City Japan. Started out with a $5,000 loan from First American bank. At that time Sheila Taylor taught school and the family business survived because of her income. All the profit from selling of knives went back into building the business. The early knives were designed to be commemoratives and were marketed by Stewart Taylor at the national knife collectors shows. These quickly became a regular product at most of the local gun shows."
"I became very active in traveling to all types of gun and knife shows and this is where I made many good friends whom I still do business with today. The brands I marketed during this period were the Buck Creek, Owl Head, Elk Horn and Taylor Cutlery."
"In the early 1990’s we became the worldwide licensee for Smith & Wesson Corp. After our success in really establishing Smith & Wesson’s presence into the knife market the opportunities for our company licensing other lines really expanded. We did become the license for Coleman and John Deere."
"On October 26th 2004 we were the successful bidder to purchase all of Imperial Schrade’s intellectual property rights. This includes all of the trademarks as well as the patents of Imperial Schrade. This is one of the most exciting days of my life. It is an absolute dream come true to start out of my garage, go on to local tradeshows, establish a relationship with one of the most well known companies of our time and to be able to purchase one of the most premier branded product lines in the United States. I consider myself so blessed to have a wonderful supporting family and to have business dreams come true."
"We purchased all of the tooling enabling us to come along with the exact same product line that has made Schrade such a success for the last 100 years. Many of the Schrade brands are currently licensed out by us to other American companies who are making these knives here in the US. Smoky Mtn. Knifeworks currently is making the Schrade Walden line. The main Schade line is being produced by our factories overseas and our prices are now to the consumer able to be lowered."
"We feel Schrade’s business in the hardware market is second to none, helping Taylor Brands to delve into other markets. In 2005 we changed our corporate name from Taylor Cutlery to Taylor Brands. One of the main reasons is due to reconstruction of our core business plan to include other products besides cutlery."
2. I notice that most knives are described as "stainless steel" rather than the actual type of stainless steel. Most of our readers are interested in steel type, which gives us a general indication of the capability of the steel without observing or handling it. Could you briefly describe the types of steel TB LLC selects for any given production run and why?
We don’t usually list the steel on a product because we use a ton of different variety and don’t want to accidentally tell someone anything inaccurate. We use mainly 440 but do have a lot of 420 still in inventory on a wide range of products. We also use 1095 high carbon, 4116 stainless, AUS8, AUS6, 440, 420 and SEA-1070 high carbon steel to name a few. Most of our employees don’t know a whole lot about what steel is used on what product so we just direct these questions to people here who do. It just depends what we are doing and what price points when we choose a steel, each situation is different and we treat them that way."
3. Could you briefly explain the relatonship between TB LLC and the Schrade name? For example, how did it get started and what sort of standards does Taylor Brands LLC use to keep the name as one associated with a certain level of quality? Could you explain the same for S&W as well?
"I am not sure what you mean here, we are Schrade, we own this brand and treat it in the highest respects. All of our products are extremely well made and we personally stand by anything we put out into the market. Our mission is to provide the highest quality product at the most affordable price. Our target customer is your everyday hard working person and we make a great tool for them at a reasonable price. Our cutting tools are made to be used and if they ever have a problem with any of our products all that is needed is to ship them to us and we will repair or replace, no matter what was done and with no hassle. We treat all our brands the same, these are products we make and they are all extremely important to myself and my family."
4. What would you consider an obstacle in winning the "hearts and minds" of those of us that are knife knuts in the market place?
"I am not sure what we could do here, you guys are a tough breed and I really don’t know what else we can do to help win you over except to keep doing what we do best and that would be making high quality products. I would truly love it if we could convert some of you guys but if not we will have to be satisfied that the majority of people who have ever bought and tried our products are extremely satisfied with their performance"
5. What type of feedback would you find useful for your overall goals from us knife knuts?
"Not sure, please nothing telling me to go “F… myself” or anything like that. We are always trying to improve so any suggestions there is always appreciated."
"I hope this helps answer some of your questions, if I am in the office I can be reached by anyone who ever wishes to call. Guys please realize we are a small family owned business located here in East Tn, we believe and value hard work, we are not a giant faceless corporation with a lot of company language, you ask me a straight question you’ll get a straight answer."
Taylor has sent me several knives to evaluate which is sort of cool. I will be posting my evaluations in the knife test forum in the near future. But I wanted to gather some information about the company in general first. Morgan Taylor took some time to share his thoughts with us.
1. What is the history of Taylor Brands LLC like when and how did you guys get started in the knife and tool business?
As explained by Stewart Taylor:
"Stewart Taylor graduated from Emory & Henry College (Emory Va.) in 1974. Taylor Cutlery started doing business in 1975 by importing from Seki City Japan. Started out with a $5,000 loan from First American bank. At that time Sheila Taylor taught school and the family business survived because of her income. All the profit from selling of knives went back into building the business. The early knives were designed to be commemoratives and were marketed by Stewart Taylor at the national knife collectors shows. These quickly became a regular product at most of the local gun shows."
"I became very active in traveling to all types of gun and knife shows and this is where I made many good friends whom I still do business with today. The brands I marketed during this period were the Buck Creek, Owl Head, Elk Horn and Taylor Cutlery."
"In the early 1990’s we became the worldwide licensee for Smith & Wesson Corp. After our success in really establishing Smith & Wesson’s presence into the knife market the opportunities for our company licensing other lines really expanded. We did become the license for Coleman and John Deere."
"On October 26th 2004 we were the successful bidder to purchase all of Imperial Schrade’s intellectual property rights. This includes all of the trademarks as well as the patents of Imperial Schrade. This is one of the most exciting days of my life. It is an absolute dream come true to start out of my garage, go on to local tradeshows, establish a relationship with one of the most well known companies of our time and to be able to purchase one of the most premier branded product lines in the United States. I consider myself so blessed to have a wonderful supporting family and to have business dreams come true."
"We purchased all of the tooling enabling us to come along with the exact same product line that has made Schrade such a success for the last 100 years. Many of the Schrade brands are currently licensed out by us to other American companies who are making these knives here in the US. Smoky Mtn. Knifeworks currently is making the Schrade Walden line. The main Schade line is being produced by our factories overseas and our prices are now to the consumer able to be lowered."
"We feel Schrade’s business in the hardware market is second to none, helping Taylor Brands to delve into other markets. In 2005 we changed our corporate name from Taylor Cutlery to Taylor Brands. One of the main reasons is due to reconstruction of our core business plan to include other products besides cutlery."
2. I notice that most knives are described as "stainless steel" rather than the actual type of stainless steel. Most of our readers are interested in steel type, which gives us a general indication of the capability of the steel without observing or handling it. Could you briefly describe the types of steel TB LLC selects for any given production run and why?
We don’t usually list the steel on a product because we use a ton of different variety and don’t want to accidentally tell someone anything inaccurate. We use mainly 440 but do have a lot of 420 still in inventory on a wide range of products. We also use 1095 high carbon, 4116 stainless, AUS8, AUS6, 440, 420 and SEA-1070 high carbon steel to name a few. Most of our employees don’t know a whole lot about what steel is used on what product so we just direct these questions to people here who do. It just depends what we are doing and what price points when we choose a steel, each situation is different and we treat them that way."
3. Could you briefly explain the relatonship between TB LLC and the Schrade name? For example, how did it get started and what sort of standards does Taylor Brands LLC use to keep the name as one associated with a certain level of quality? Could you explain the same for S&W as well?
"I am not sure what you mean here, we are Schrade, we own this brand and treat it in the highest respects. All of our products are extremely well made and we personally stand by anything we put out into the market. Our mission is to provide the highest quality product at the most affordable price. Our target customer is your everyday hard working person and we make a great tool for them at a reasonable price. Our cutting tools are made to be used and if they ever have a problem with any of our products all that is needed is to ship them to us and we will repair or replace, no matter what was done and with no hassle. We treat all our brands the same, these are products we make and they are all extremely important to myself and my family."
4. What would you consider an obstacle in winning the "hearts and minds" of those of us that are knife knuts in the market place?
"I am not sure what we could do here, you guys are a tough breed and I really don’t know what else we can do to help win you over except to keep doing what we do best and that would be making high quality products. I would truly love it if we could convert some of you guys but if not we will have to be satisfied that the majority of people who have ever bought and tried our products are extremely satisfied with their performance"
5. What type of feedback would you find useful for your overall goals from us knife knuts?
"Not sure, please nothing telling me to go “F… myself” or anything like that. We are always trying to improve so any suggestions there is always appreciated."
"I hope this helps answer some of your questions, if I am in the office I can be reached by anyone who ever wishes to call. Guys please realize we are a small family owned business located here in East Tn, we believe and value hard work, we are not a giant faceless corporation with a lot of company language, you ask me a straight question you’ll get a straight answer."