Recently we’ve had a collection of Chevrolet knives arrive from Case for us, ready to go out the door. Can’t go wrong with a Chevy, but it made me wonder some regarding the company themselves. So, naturally, I did a little digging to see what I could find on their roots.
Louis Chevrolet, the sun of a Swiss watchmaker, had a drive and passion for racing. In 1900 he immigrated to Canada and then to New York, where he worked as a mechanic. By 1905 he was a race car driver for Buick and worked with them up until 1911.
By then, Louis had struck a partnership up with William Durat and together with Louis’ brother Arthur, founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company, the familiar logo a modified version of the Swiss Cross, so the story goes.
However, differences caused a rift between Louis and William, as Durat wanted to focus more of their production on economic, middle-class vehicles, whereas Louis wanted to use his passion regarding racing to produce high end parts for the grueling challenges of the speedway. In 1915 Louis sold his share of the company to Durat and went to fund the Frontenac Motor Corporation and returned to his original passion: racing. William, meanwhile, helped slowly build the foundation of the company most know today.
It’s company we’re pleased to see Case added to their lineup of knives, in fact, a fairly recent edition has been going out the past few weeks. The red synthetic is an affordable, solid working knife, in a way, perhaps it’d be one William Durat himself would have wanted to carry. The whole selection of our Chevrolet knives can be found here.