The Paolantonio brothers came to the United Statesom Italy prior to 1912. They already had experience at making knives when they came to this country from one of the most famous knife producing cities in the world, Frosolone, Italy. The Brothers, Frederick, Dominick and Antonio worked for the Empire knife Company of Winsted, Conn. for a few years. The brothers all left Empire and separetely formed four separate knife companies between 1914 and 1926. Finally, in 1926 the brothers united to form the Colonial Knife Company, located at 9 Calender Street, in Providence, Rhode Island.The Business thrived and they moved to 287 Oak St. and have been there manufacturing knives until thier move in 2000 to 61 Dewey Ave, Warwick, Rhode Island and have been there ever since.

   COlonial Knife Company manufactured five basic models of switchblades in the 1940's and 1950's. They were one of only two U.S. cmmpanies who were still manufacturing them on a large scale in 1958 when Congress banned interstate commerce, of the knives. How's that for irony? The two companies in th enation ho still manufactured switchblades on a large scale, could still legally make the, but could only sell them in the state where they were manufactured and both companies were located in Rhode Island!

   Many of the antique American swithcblades have acquired colorful nicknames over the years. Some of my favorites are the ones associated with the Colonial  Knife switchblades. In the following list of knives I have included the length closed, tang stamp and nickanmes in parenthesis.

 The eight basic patterns of switchblade knives Colonial produced were as follows:

                                                                    1. 2 1/4 inch Snappy fishtail

                                                                    2. 2 1/4 inch Snappy  bowtie

                                                                    3. 3 3/* inch Shur Snap cigar

                                                                    4. 4 inch Shur Snap fishtail

                                                                    5. 4 inch Shur Snap bowtie

                                                                    6. 4 1/8 inch Shu Snap  fatjack

                                                                    7. 5 inch Shur Snap Jumbo Jack

   The names Shur Snap and Snappy were introduced in 1948. The 4 1/8 inch fatjack as made with two more tang stamps besides the Shur Snap mentioned above. Those stamps are 'Pronto" and "Jiffy" and these knives must have been made in smaller numbers because they are harder to find than the Shur Snaps. With the addition f these two important variations there are a total of 10 knives that you'd have to collect to have a good representation of Colonial's switchblade lineup.

   The Jumbo Jack and Stubby knives all have large round bottoms. The Fatjack knives, including the Pronto and Jiffy, all have a smaller button with some slightly rounded. The buttons on the rest of the Colonial Shur-Snap knives help to tell us at what stage of production they were made, early, middle or late. I like refer to these time differences as generations, and there ar four total. Those knives with large brass buttons are the oldest. I call them first generation from the ealry 1940's and early 1950's.  A large button other than brass would be second generation from the mid 1950's, and small flat buttons are fourth generation and were made in the late 1950's.  For the record, the handles on these knives were NOT made of celluloid as many collectors think. I wanted to be sure so I did the fire test on several handles. Celluloid is extremel flammable and will ignite immediately upon contact with flame, while plastic will smoke. Also, the odors are very different. The Colonial handles are some sort of plastic, not celluloid. Interestingly, all of the Colonial switchblades have the brand name over "Colonial" over "Prov USA" stamped on the front tang, but on most of the fishtails, jacks and Snappys all that can be seen of the bottom stamp is "USA". During the manufacturing process grooves must be cut into the tang of the blade for locking purposes andmost of the imte these grooves were cut right through "PROV", usually obliterating it, though sometimes part of it is still visible.