William Rodgers – The Famous ‘I Cut My Way’ Brand

The famous I Cut My Way Brand, was made in Sheffield from the 1830s by the William Rodgers Company.

On William’s passing in 1855, it was bought by John Clarke & Son, and then briefly changed hands again before being saved for posterity by Egginton Brothers, in the 1980’s.

The William Rodgers brand is known for the edge tools and knives used in frontier countries by Pioneers, Trappers and Hunters, Backwoodsmen, and Explorers. Their knives became steeped in folklore from Nova Scotia to the Rockies and far away Sitka. Early examples are still hunted by collectors.

Even the logo is not just a trademark but the unique shape of an Ulu (Inuit for “Woman’s Knife”, used for over 4,000 years by indigenous tribes of the Arctic Circle for shaping and scraping hides before stitching into clothes, and nomadic homes) the version requested from Sheffield makers in the 19th and 20th centuries were used by hunters and traders in Alaska.

By the 1940’s William Rodgers were manufacturing commando knives, and in the 1950’s The Boy Scout movement allocated William Rodgers knives (The Scout Knife) to its young adventurers for woodcraft and wilderness training.

The heritage and history of these robust and useful edge tools will be continued – for multiple different purposes – with the knowledge that the eras and occupations in which they were tried and tested, will ensure the reliability and longevity longed for in peaceful 21st Century pastimes.