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Wisconsin Knife Works, Inc.
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WKW . . . First, the inventors . . . now, the innovators.
Inventors, Innovators

Wisconsin Knife Works is the leader in tooling and production ideas as well as precision manufacturing of woodworking cutting tools. "Engineers to the Woodworking Industry" is not as much a slogan at WKW as it is a hard earned tradition.

Our company was founded in Clinton, Wisconsin in 1926 to provide tooling for wood products used in the automotive industry. This included woodcutting knives and cutterheads.

The company grew and relocated to Beloit, Wisconsin in 1928. The product offering included tooling for use in the manufacturing of furniture, millwork, toys and other wood items.
On June 25, 1929, WISCONSIN KNIFE WORKS obtained United States Patent number 1,718,325 for the Lock-Joint Grooving Head . . . known today as fingerjoint cutterheads. This product met with great success, particularly in the automobile industry. Both the automobile bodies, and the steering wheels were made up of short pieces of wood that had been fingerjointed together. Even now, WISCONSIN KNIFE WORKS still provides a two-winged cutter for use in authentic automobile restorations.

In 1950 the company continued to expand its operation through both internal growth as well as by outside acquisitions. These acquisitions included many well-known names in the knife industry.

In 1965 WISCONSIN KNIFE WORKS built a new manufacturing facility in Beloit, Wisconsin.		 LOCK-JOINT GROOVING HEAD
On December 28th, 1970, WISCONSIN KNIFE WORKS became a wholly owned subsidiary of Black & Decker. The acquisition of WKW included its three divisions, Sterling Cutter, Stercal-Oceana and Anderson Knife.

1971 saw Sterling Cutter and Stercal-Oceana being consolidated into the Beloit operations along with another Black & Decker acquisition, Carbide Router Company.

In 1977, The Anderson Knife Works operations were moved to the Beloit manufacturing facility.

1994 brought new owners for WISCONSIN KNIFE WORKS, Bruce and Alice Swing purchased WKW from Black & Decker on June 30.
New headquarters

1995 WISCONSIN KNIFE WORKS moved into a new manufacturing/corporate headquarters located in a new industrial park. From here we service many of the woodcutting tooling requirements of the secondary woodworking industries with products which include knives, router-bits, fingerjoint cutters, saw blades, milled-to-pattern bits and standard and custom cutterheads.

2001 - WKW introduces M-3 as an addition to its premium line of knife steel. Also during 2001 Wisconsin Knife Works expands its Quick Delivery cutterhead program. There are 444 different cutterhead combinations available for delivery in 7 working days or less.

2002 - WKW again expands its quick delivery cutterhead program to offer significantly more combinations of premium quality cutterheads. In 2002 WKW also introduced its Badger knife steel line.

2003 -WKW's offering of premium router bits was expanded. The router bit line includes competitively priced high speed steel, carbide tipped and solid carbide stock and custom router bits.

2005 - WKW expands its tooling offering by introducing M-2 HSS lathe knives in 2 widths and lengths ranging from 1" up to 5 1/2".

2006 WKW celebrates 80 years as a supplier of quality tooling to customers worldwide.  During 2006, WKW will be making significant investments in technology that will provide the tools needed to continue to supply high quality products and value added services to our customers.