“Safety” Is Our Middle NameTM
Handy Safety Knife® offers you more than just a cutting tool. Its patented style and ease-of-use are just a few ways our knife makes your life easier.
- Durable
- Handy®
- Versatile
- Customizable by style, size, and color
- Made in the USA
Why HTK?
From Worldwide Industry to Your Home
Ring Knives with a Purpose: The HTK Company produces a full line of safety ring knives to fit the needs of the user or application. Having provided an American-made cutting solution for 115 years, the Handy® Safety Knife is in a wide range of businesses and industries across the country and around the world, and now, in your home.
Family-owned Customer Service: At HTK Company, we believe good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. We strive to make your interaction with us, and our product, a positive one. We are a family-owned business in operation for more than four generations and we are proud to have continually produced our line of Handy® Safety Knives in the USA.
Safety Knives for Individual or Commercial Use: Safety when using tools or cutting devices is a top concern for our customers, whether they be corporations or individuals. Employees that use utility knives in the workplace and individuals who discover personal home uses alike have found a safe alternative with the Handy Safety Knife.™
From box opener to cutting twine, our safety ring knife can do the job.
Safety is Everyone's Job. Please remember, when it comes to cutting tools and safety knives, common sense and caution are factors that cannot be built into any product—these must be upheld by the user of the safety knife.
HTK History
Founding Father
The Handy Twine Knife Company started with entrepreneur James R. Caldwell, with his invention of the Twine Knife in the late 1800s. He was looking for a way to make his job as a railway postal clerk more efficient. Since this humble beginning of HTK Company, we have continued to produce and update our line of American-made Handy Safety Knives™ to provide the best customer experience possible.
Back in James Caldwell’s day, mail was moved by trains and postal clerks were responsible for collecting and sorting the mail for delivery. While in transit, the clerks would use twine to bundle the mail for the next stop and use pocket knives to cut the twine.
Caldwell’s daily route was from Chicago to Pittsburgh and back again. There was not much time between stops, so the pace was fast. That quick pace, coupled with the constant movement of the rail car, made it impossible for him to keep track of his pocket knife. One day after work, Mr. Caldwell went home and came up with a “better mousetrap.” He took a piece of copper, bent it around his finger, and attached the blade from his pocket knife to the copper band with a small screw and nut. That original knife is on rotating display at the Smithsonian Postal Museum in Washington D.C.
Caldwell soon began getting requests from his co-workers for their own “handy knife” and the company had its beginning. After some design changes and a few years of making twine knives in the evenings after his regular job, the Handy Twine Knife Company was formed. The first recorded sale of a knife was in 1904. The drawings and application for a patent were filed in October of 1910 and approved in 1912. The name “Handy” and the distinctive design of the utility knife have been protected by U.S. Patent and Trademark Laws.
Corporate HeadquartersP.O. Box 146
Upper Sandusky, OH 43351