D.H. Russell
Grohmann Knives Limited is a small family business with a big reputation.
Their story begins before the second World War, when a commercial buyer from Quebec traveled once a year to a factory in Sudetenland, then a German region of Czechoslovakia, to buy pocket knives. Every year the buyer would urge Rudolph Grohmann, the production manager at a plant in Mikulasovice (Nixdorf), to come to Canada, promising him help to get started. Grohmann would always decline as he was happy in his own country, but after the war, the political situation grew desperate and in 1949 Rudolph Grohmann accepted the offer. Within a year, Grohmann and his family arrived in Nova Scotia at the invitation of the provincial government that funded Pictou Cutlery.
Here, Grohmann and his son-in-law, Michael Babinec Sr., worked along with approximately 30 other people. While Pictou Cutlery was in operation, an American knife company, W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Company was hired to assist with one large order of 200,000 folding knives. However, the Nova Scotia government closed the business after three years and sold off all the machinery. Grohmann and his son-in-law, Michael Babinec Sr. then went to work at Trenton Steel making Canon shells for the Korean War and then to Fairy Aviation in Shearwater machining airplane parts amongst other jobs. Grohmann, however, was determined make knives, and built a garage workshop to begin producing and engraving folding knives designed by himself.
Shortly after, D.H. Russell, the private secretary to the Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King, was tired of only finding imported knives at every store he went into. He thought there should also be Canadian knives on the market, so he set out to find a knife maker to help him make his dream come true. Grohmann met with Russell and together they set out to design truly Canadian made knives.
After field testing with the help of hunters & trappers across the far north, the D.H. Russell Belt Knife was born. The Original has won more than 25 international honors including a display at New York's prestigious Museum of Modern Art. Grohmann and D.H. Russell went on to create several other popular designs.
"Grohmann Knives Limited" was formed in 1961 and was run by one of Grohmann's daughters, Berta, and her husband Michael Babinec Sr. They passed the family business down to their three sons who all worked in the business together. Today, Michael Jr. President, along with his daughter, Michelle are running the business in its same location in Pictou Nova Scotia with approximately 25 employees.
Outdoor enthusiasts have been using Grohmann for over 50 Years and passing them down through generation after generation. For Grohmann Knives, making knives is as much an art as a trade giving you dependability by your side when you need it most.
