History of the Colonial Automatic Knives-Shur Snap™, Snappy™, Jiffy™ & Pronto™ brands, 1940 through 1958
The Paolantonio brothers came to the United States from 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, Itlay. The brothers, Frederick, Dominick and Anthony worked for the Empire Knife Company of Winsted, CT for a few years. The Brothers all left Empire and separately formed four separate knife companies between 1914 and 1926. Finally, in 1926 the brothers united to form Colonial Knife Company, located at 9 Calendar St. Providence, Rhode Island. The business thrived and they moved to 287 Oak St. and have been manufacturing knives there until 1999 when Colonial moved once more to 61 Dewey...