The United States celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the 1880s and 1890s there were several attempts to establish a Mother's Day, but they didn't succeed beyond the local level. The holiday was created by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1908 as a day to honor one's mother. Jarvis wanted to accomplish her mother's dream of making a celebration for all mothers, although the idea didn't take off until she enlisted the services of wealthy Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker. She kept promoting the holiday until President Woodrow Wilson made it an official national holiday in 1914. The holiday eventually became so highly commercialized that many, including its founder, Anna Jarvis, considered it a "Hallmark Holiday, i.e. one with an overwhelming commercial purpose. Jarvis eventually ended up opposing the holiday she had helped to create. She died in 1948, regretting what had become of her holiday. In the United States, Mother's Day remains one of the biggest days for sales of flowers, greeting cards, and the like; it is also the biggest holiday for long-distance telephone calls.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Some Good Points on Buying that Special Kitchen Knife
Vital Points You Must Know Before You Buy the Next Set of Kitchen Knives
Among the many types of kitchen knives in the market today, ceramic and Japanese kitchen knives are few of the most popular. This isn’t because they are more decorated or some other vain reasons but the fact remains that there are some salient qualities they have that keeps them miles apart from other kitchen knives in the malls.
Mentioning Japanese and ceramic kitchen knives are essential so as to save us the time of going through the endless lists of the various kitchen knives in the market but bear in mind that there are few others that have relatively good qualities. These are usually grouped on how the kitchen knives were forged and branded. It is important to quickly mention that there are other sub-categories of kitchen knives in these two major types of knives.
Kitchen knives are needed in every kitchen and every mum will be happy to have the best in her kitchen for some obvious reasons. Amongst the reasons is the fact that these kitchen knives are used always in the kitchen as long as something will be cooked in the kitchen. Just before you buy the next kitchen knives, these factors below are worth considering.
If you are a newlywed and have relative low budget, you can consider Chicago Cutlery Metropolitan Kitchen Knives. This is because there aren’t just low-priced but are generally strong and smooth.
Other budget kitchen knives that are worth mentioning are the Forschner Victorinox Ceramic Knives. Most of them are uniquely stamped and are known for their rugged toughness.
If on the other hand, you are a chef of high repute, you may not just opt for any of the Japanese kitchen knives but would likely settle for Rachael Ray Kitchen Knives. But the truth remains that since these knives are always recommended by the chefs, you will be safe with it in your kitchen because they have been tested and trusted by the masters of the kitchen, the chefs.
According to consumer report, Wusthof Classic kitchen Knives is very popular among mums and other women. Mentioning this is important because the report was gathered from various women that had used these brilliantly made kitchen knives at one time or the other.
Having considered some of the above types of kitchen knives, there are some recommended standard you can use to appraise the quality of the next ceramic or Japanese kitchen knives you would want to opt for.
Before you drop your cash for that set of ceramics or Japanese kitchen knives, be sure that they can be washed easily without hassles. It is also vital that you check up how corrosive resistant the kitchen knives are before you go for them.
Note that some kitchen knives don’t have proper cutting edge retention so you have to check if the one you want to opt for is suitable for you. Being suitable includes but not limited to how comfortable and safe theses kitchen knives will be when they are being used.
The above factors are essential if you must choose the right kitchen knives but also don’t forget to check how balanced the knives are for easier usage. You also need to consider the sharpening material you have or the ones you are comfortable with while choosing the kitchen knives for your home or restaurant.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Information about a Company that is No More - Schrade Knife Company
One Year Before Schrade Filed Bankruptcy
July 13, 2003
Knife maker Schrade in a battle to survive
By Paul Brooks
Times Herald-Record
pbrooks@th-record.com
Ellenville – The future of knife manufacturer Imperial Schrade unfurled across the glass-topped conference table at the Ellenville headquarters.
Jim Economos, Schrade's executive vice president, smoothed the black cloth satchel flat and dipped his hands into the pouches. Gently, one by one, he withdrew their contents and arrayed them on the table to glimmer in the neon light. The knives shone with new concepts and designs and materials.
They are the latest (and still not public) weapons in Schrade's fight for survival. Battered by the tides of the marketplace – since the end of 2001 – Schrade has shed roughly 200 jobs, or one-third, of its work force through layoffs and retirements. When workers took jobs elsewhere, they were not replaced.
The cuts have rippled through the tightly knit communities wedged between the Catskills and the Shawangunk Ridge in the southwest corner of Ulster County.
There is a lot at stake for Schrade, a company that will mark its 100th year in business next year. It is a bittersweet anniversary for not only the workers – some of them third- and fourth-generation knife makers – but for Ellenville and indeed the region.
About 400 people still draw solid paychecks from the privately owned company. Unskilled labor can make $13 an hour, not counting overtime. Technicians, managers, engineers and the like can look for competitive wages. Those are good incomes in Ulster County, where the average wage in 2000 was about $27,000. Workers at Schrade get health and retirement benefits, too, at a time when such things are harder to find.
The company has been a mainstay in the Ellenville area since 1958. "They have given back time and time again to the community," said Ellenville Village Manager Elliott Auerbach.
Schrade was there when Phil Mattracion of the Ellenville Police Department needed help getting a DARE program started. The company has helped Toys for Tots and the annual Run Like the Wind 10-K race. It made a special knife to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Ellenville School District. The Fourth of July Committee could count on Schrade for a hand in fund-raising every year.
When Ellenville Hospital needed help raising money to stay alive, Schrade pitched in.
"The list is endless," said Auerbach, a former mayor and local businessman. "Every time the community went and asked for something, they gave it. There has never, ever, been a time that Schrade has denied this community anything it could possibly contribute. [Village officials] will do whatever it takes to help."
Other companies across the region find themselves buffeted by the same economic currents.
The Hudson Valley, which stretches from Westchester and Rockland to Columbia and Greene counties, lost 4,400 manufacturing jobs in the 12 months ending May 2003. That's according to Mike DiTullo, president and chief executive officer of Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress, a regional economic think tank.
In 1980, manufacturing accounted for 23 percent of the region's jobs. In May of this year, manufacturing's share of the work force had dropped to 8 percent, DiTullo said.
The forces at work are global.
Manufacturers from Taiwan and China have poured into the knife market in recent years, much as the Chinese have undercut Hudson Valley apple growers.
At the same time, American workers are losing jobs to cheaper labor overseas. In January, Osram Sylvania announced it was closing its plant in Maybrook and moving it to China because of the cheaper labor. The move cost 61 local jobs.
"It's happening to everybody," Economos said. "Go into any mass merchandiser and try to find something not made in China."
A trend to consolidation comes into play, too. Dyno Nobel, for example, is laying off 200 workers at its explosives plant in Port Ewen in the wake of a recent merger.
Behind the scenes, the shift is driven by big, mass merchandisers, such as Wal-Mart and Target, says Arthur Zackiewicz, a senior business editor for HFN, a weekly newspaper that covers the home furnishings industry. A former reporter, Zackiewicz covered Ellenville for the Times Herald-Record.
"Basically, it's a price war," Zackiewicz said. "They are looking to source goods that are inexpensive and still have strong [profit] margins. ... The price pressure in incredible."
The pressure has forced many American knife manufacturers toward higher priced, higher quality products. Companies are scrambling for new designs and innovations that will attract customers, said Mark Zalesky, editor in chief of Knife World Magazine in Knoxville, Tenn.
In the case of Schrade, shoppers can pick up some knives on sale for as little as $5 through the Internet. Yet Schrade also markets newer, custom designed knives for $275 and $295. Some collectibles sell for $400. Many of Schrade's products fall in the $30 to $80 range.
Yet almost as quickly as Schrade and other companies create a hit, manufacturers in the Far East have it copied and out the door. "There is no way to stop it," Zalesky said. "It looks just like the real thing. It's pretty hard to compete with that."
Schrade is unwilling to cut and run from the competition.
A sense of pride emanates from Economos. He talks of how Schrade is the largest knife manufacturer in the country, how Ellenville is one of the original knife making centers in America. He talks of how it takes the experienced touch of a skilled worker to turn the right edge to a blade and the company is handling the pressure.
"What it forces us to do," he said, "is come out with more innovative stuff quicker."
Already the Ellenville-based company has rolled out other new knives and tools that capitalize on the latest industry trends: knives that open and close with just one hand, blades that lock and unlock quickly and easily, handles in electric colors of blue and red and even purple, and multifunction "tools" that put the venerable Swiss army knife to shame.
Yet, Schrade has not abandoned its history. It still sells more than a million a year of its Old Timer knives that many fathers and grandfathers carried in their own day.
Those grandfathers would be hard pressed to keep up with the pace of change in the market today.
Schrade used to take two years to roll out three or four or five new product lines, distribute them and get sales cooking. The goal now is to push four, five or even six new product lines out the door at a time.
New products used to account for about 15 percent of the company's business. Now, the goal is for those new products to represent a full one-third of annual sales. "That's basically how we are going to refuel growth," Economos said.
Given the cutbacks, Schrade seems to have ample room in its 548,000-square-foot factory. It lies just north of the Village of Ellenville off Route 209.
The windowless structure is cavernous inside. Innumerable machines dot the concrete floor. They fill the air with the hiss and crack of pneumatics. A stream of red sparks spills from a large sander. Knife blades soaked in oil spin from a massive $1 million press. Every eight-hour shift, it squeezes 20,000 knife blades out of 1,700-pound rolls of raw steel.
Yet, relatively few people are in sight. Often a single person hovers around a machine, loading it, unloading it, adjusting it. When something breaks, they fix it. When a new part means new programming for the machine, they may do that too. "Not a lot of people off the street can do that," Economos said. Schrade runs its own four-year apprenticeship program in machine trades as a result.
Workers at Schrade – and elsewhere – are being asked to change.
Schrade has set up teams to handle production in certain areas. The members can all do each other's jobs. They monitor the process for quality as they go along and make adjustments on the spot. "We have spent $1.25 million in training in the last year. We have to, to stay competitive," Economos said. It used to take two to four weeks to ship an order; now it takes two to three days, he added.
DiTullo said the long-range trend of fewer and fewer manufacturing jobs in the region will continue.
"That doesn't mean we will manufacture less," DiTullo said. "It means we will manufacture higher value products using fewer people. You need smarter people, not as many people."
Schrade sees inventories coming down, a sign that the economy is improving. Economos said: "Now we hope that translates to orders."
The company can make it, said Joe Tarbell, owner of J.T. Knife Shop in Port Jervis. "If they get a little more innovative, they can do all right," he said.
Schrade has seen its ups and downs over the years and continued to grow. Jeff Ahearn, vice president for administration, recalled that the company had only 236 employees back in 1985.
Economos said Schrade will survive.
"If you sit on your haunches, you will be gone," he said. "We are not sitting on our haunches."
Knife maker Schrade in a battle to survive
By Paul Brooks
Times Herald-Record
pbrooks@th-record.com
Ellenville – The future of knife manufacturer Imperial Schrade unfurled across the glass-topped conference table at the Ellenville headquarters.
Jim Economos, Schrade's executive vice president, smoothed the black cloth satchel flat and dipped his hands into the pouches. Gently, one by one, he withdrew their contents and arrayed them on the table to glimmer in the neon light. The knives shone with new concepts and designs and materials.
They are the latest (and still not public) weapons in Schrade's fight for survival. Battered by the tides of the marketplace – since the end of 2001 – Schrade has shed roughly 200 jobs, or one-third, of its work force through layoffs and retirements. When workers took jobs elsewhere, they were not replaced.
The cuts have rippled through the tightly knit communities wedged between the Catskills and the Shawangunk Ridge in the southwest corner of Ulster County.
There is a lot at stake for Schrade, a company that will mark its 100th year in business next year. It is a bittersweet anniversary for not only the workers – some of them third- and fourth-generation knife makers – but for Ellenville and indeed the region.
About 400 people still draw solid paychecks from the privately owned company. Unskilled labor can make $13 an hour, not counting overtime. Technicians, managers, engineers and the like can look for competitive wages. Those are good incomes in Ulster County, where the average wage in 2000 was about $27,000. Workers at Schrade get health and retirement benefits, too, at a time when such things are harder to find.
The company has been a mainstay in the Ellenville area since 1958. "They have given back time and time again to the community," said Ellenville Village Manager Elliott Auerbach.
Schrade was there when Phil Mattracion of the Ellenville Police Department needed help getting a DARE program started. The company has helped Toys for Tots and the annual Run Like the Wind 10-K race. It made a special knife to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Ellenville School District. The Fourth of July Committee could count on Schrade for a hand in fund-raising every year.
When Ellenville Hospital needed help raising money to stay alive, Schrade pitched in.
"The list is endless," said Auerbach, a former mayor and local businessman. "Every time the community went and asked for something, they gave it. There has never, ever, been a time that Schrade has denied this community anything it could possibly contribute. [Village officials] will do whatever it takes to help."
Other companies across the region find themselves buffeted by the same economic currents.
The Hudson Valley, which stretches from Westchester and Rockland to Columbia and Greene counties, lost 4,400 manufacturing jobs in the 12 months ending May 2003. That's according to Mike DiTullo, president and chief executive officer of Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress, a regional economic think tank.
In 1980, manufacturing accounted for 23 percent of the region's jobs. In May of this year, manufacturing's share of the work force had dropped to 8 percent, DiTullo said.
The forces at work are global.
Manufacturers from Taiwan and China have poured into the knife market in recent years, much as the Chinese have undercut Hudson Valley apple growers.
At the same time, American workers are losing jobs to cheaper labor overseas. In January, Osram Sylvania announced it was closing its plant in Maybrook and moving it to China because of the cheaper labor. The move cost 61 local jobs.
"It's happening to everybody," Economos said. "Go into any mass merchandiser and try to find something not made in China."
A trend to consolidation comes into play, too. Dyno Nobel, for example, is laying off 200 workers at its explosives plant in Port Ewen in the wake of a recent merger.
Behind the scenes, the shift is driven by big, mass merchandisers, such as Wal-Mart and Target, says Arthur Zackiewicz, a senior business editor for HFN, a weekly newspaper that covers the home furnishings industry. A former reporter, Zackiewicz covered Ellenville for the Times Herald-Record.
"Basically, it's a price war," Zackiewicz said. "They are looking to source goods that are inexpensive and still have strong [profit] margins. ... The price pressure in incredible."
The pressure has forced many American knife manufacturers toward higher priced, higher quality products. Companies are scrambling for new designs and innovations that will attract customers, said Mark Zalesky, editor in chief of Knife World Magazine in Knoxville, Tenn.
In the case of Schrade, shoppers can pick up some knives on sale for as little as $5 through the Internet. Yet Schrade also markets newer, custom designed knives for $275 and $295. Some collectibles sell for $400. Many of Schrade's products fall in the $30 to $80 range.
Yet almost as quickly as Schrade and other companies create a hit, manufacturers in the Far East have it copied and out the door. "There is no way to stop it," Zalesky said. "It looks just like the real thing. It's pretty hard to compete with that."
Schrade is unwilling to cut and run from the competition.
A sense of pride emanates from Economos. He talks of how Schrade is the largest knife manufacturer in the country, how Ellenville is one of the original knife making centers in America. He talks of how it takes the experienced touch of a skilled worker to turn the right edge to a blade and the company is handling the pressure.
"What it forces us to do," he said, "is come out with more innovative stuff quicker."
Already the Ellenville-based company has rolled out other new knives and tools that capitalize on the latest industry trends: knives that open and close with just one hand, blades that lock and unlock quickly and easily, handles in electric colors of blue and red and even purple, and multifunction "tools" that put the venerable Swiss army knife to shame.
Yet, Schrade has not abandoned its history. It still sells more than a million a year of its Old Timer knives that many fathers and grandfathers carried in their own day.
Those grandfathers would be hard pressed to keep up with the pace of change in the market today.
Schrade used to take two years to roll out three or four or five new product lines, distribute them and get sales cooking. The goal now is to push four, five or even six new product lines out the door at a time.
New products used to account for about 15 percent of the company's business. Now, the goal is for those new products to represent a full one-third of annual sales. "That's basically how we are going to refuel growth," Economos said.
Given the cutbacks, Schrade seems to have ample room in its 548,000-square-foot factory. It lies just north of the Village of Ellenville off Route 209.
The windowless structure is cavernous inside. Innumerable machines dot the concrete floor. They fill the air with the hiss and crack of pneumatics. A stream of red sparks spills from a large sander. Knife blades soaked in oil spin from a massive $1 million press. Every eight-hour shift, it squeezes 20,000 knife blades out of 1,700-pound rolls of raw steel.
Yet, relatively few people are in sight. Often a single person hovers around a machine, loading it, unloading it, adjusting it. When something breaks, they fix it. When a new part means new programming for the machine, they may do that too. "Not a lot of people off the street can do that," Economos said. Schrade runs its own four-year apprenticeship program in machine trades as a result.
Workers at Schrade – and elsewhere – are being asked to change.
Schrade has set up teams to handle production in certain areas. The members can all do each other's jobs. They monitor the process for quality as they go along and make adjustments on the spot. "We have spent $1.25 million in training in the last year. We have to, to stay competitive," Economos said. It used to take two to four weeks to ship an order; now it takes two to three days, he added.
DiTullo said the long-range trend of fewer and fewer manufacturing jobs in the region will continue.
"That doesn't mean we will manufacture less," DiTullo said. "It means we will manufacture higher value products using fewer people. You need smarter people, not as many people."
Schrade sees inventories coming down, a sign that the economy is improving. Economos said: "Now we hope that translates to orders."
The company can make it, said Joe Tarbell, owner of J.T. Knife Shop in Port Jervis. "If they get a little more innovative, they can do all right," he said.
Schrade has seen its ups and downs over the years and continued to grow. Jeff Ahearn, vice president for administration, recalled that the company had only 236 employees back in 1985.
Economos said Schrade will survive.
"If you sit on your haunches, you will be gone," he said. "We are not sitting on our haunches."
Monday, April 4, 2011
Thanks for the Thoughts and Comments
I would like to thank my wife's brother, Gary Dodson for the kind comments that he posted on Facebook.
Many things happen in our lives to bring us sorrow. Many things happen to bring us gladness. We don't think very often that the affect of having someone in our lives could bring us so many different emotions. Some of the people I have had in my life have brought me both.
As I think about these I cant help but think of my sister, Betty, and her husband Bill, and their daughter, Pam. This month is the 15 th. anniversary of the loss of their daughter, and sister, Denise Workman. A beautiful young Mother who left this earth way too soon.
I turn my thoughts to all the positives that Denise brought to her family, because I know that she loved them. The two beautiful daughters that Denise left, and how proud I know she would be of them. One who has made her a Grandmother with a beautiful baby girl, the other in a College athletic program with a major university.
I don't know how to ease the pain of someone who suffers such a loss. I can only say that Denise is watching, and she is very proud of what she sees.http://budurl.com/zptg
How To Make Money With The Amazon Affiliate Program
Many things happen in our lives to bring us sorrow. Many things happen to bring us gladness. We don't think very often that the affect of having someone in our lives could bring us so many different emotions. Some of the people I have had in my life have brought me both.
As I think about these I cant help but think of my sister, Betty, and her husband Bill, and their daughter, Pam. This month is the 15 th. anniversary of the loss of their daughter, and sister, Denise Workman. A beautiful young Mother who left this earth way too soon.
I turn my thoughts to all the positives that Denise brought to her family, because I know that she loved them. The two beautiful daughters that Denise left, and how proud I know she would be of them. One who has made her a Grandmother with a beautiful baby girl, the other in a College athletic program with a major university.
I don't know how to ease the pain of someone who suffers such a loss. I can only say that Denise is watching, and she is very proud of what she sees.http://budurl.com/zptg
How To Make Money With The Amazon Affiliate Program
Friday, April 1, 2011
Super Nice Day here in South Carolina
A real nice day here in South Carolina, just a little bit chilly.
This Kindle is a Super Reader
This Kindle is a Super Reader
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