Bear & Son Cutlery
Authorized Dealer • Jacksonville, Alabama • Family-Owned Since 1991
Bear & Son Cutlery is the family-owned Jacksonville, Alabama knife manufacturer founded in 1991 by Ken Griffey and relaunched in 2004 under its current name with his son Matt — one of only a handful of vertically-integrated American knife factories still producing traditional pocket knives, butterfly knives, and tactical blades from raw steel through final sharpening on US soil. Keep Shooting carries three Bear & Son butterfly knives (Black, Silver Vein, Silver Vein Damascus) and the Bear OPS Auto Bold Action III Stiletto.
About Bear & Son Cutlery at Keep Shooting
Keep Shooting is an authorized Bear & Son Cutlery dealer carrying four pieces across the Bear family of brands: the Bear & Son Black Butterfly Knife ($45.31), the Bear & Son Silver Vein Butterfly Knife ($54.38), the Bear & Son Silver Vein Damascus Steel Butterfly Knife ($79.95), and the Bear OPS Auto Bold Action III Stiletto Knife ($119.63). Bear & Son is one of a small handful of American knife manufacturers still producing fully-vertical domestic cutlery from raw steel through final sharpening — a 30-plus-year Alabama factory tradition that connects the classic Parker cutlery lineage of the 1980s to the modern USA-manufacturing revival.
The Bear & Son story begins with Jacksonville, Alabama — a small Calhoun County town of 12,000 that has been one of America's most historically significant cutlery-manufacturing centers since the mid-20th century. Jacksonville is best known as the longtime home of W.R. Case & Sons, but it also hosted several other American knife brands through the 1970s and 80s, including Parker Edwards, which established a production facility in Jacksonville in 1986. When Parker closed the Alabama plant at the end of the 1980s, the factory's skilled workforce and equipment were at risk of being dispersed — a familiar pattern for US cutlery manufacturing in the late 20th century as overseas contract production hollowed out domestic knife-making capacity.
In 1991, Ken Griffey — a Jacksonville local with experience in the Parker operation — and two partners purchased the Parker Edwards facility and launched Bear MGC Cutlery. The new company built on the Parker factory's existing production capability, initially focusing on traditional pocket knives (Stockman, Trapper, Sodbuster patterns) and the butterfly-knife segment. Bear MGC operated successfully through the 1990s, but in 1999 it was acquired by the European conglomerate SABI. Five years later, in 2004, Griffey saw the opportunity to buy the company back — and this time he did so with his son Matt Griffey as a full partner. The reunited family business was renamed Bear & Son Cutlery, and it's been continuously owned and operated by the Griffey family at the same Jacksonville factory ever since. The company was profiled on Fox Business News in December 2021 as an example of American family-owned manufacturing and featured on This Built America in 2014 for the same reason.
The Bear & Son factory is fully vertically integrated — every step of the manufacturing process happens inside the 1111 Bear Boulevard facility in Jacksonville. Raw steel comes in, is stamped into blade blanks, heat- treated to specification, ground to edge geometry, mated to handles (Delrin, bone, stag, zinc, aluminum, or Damascus-pattern steel depending on the line), assembled, sharpened, and boxed for shipment. Very few surviving American knife manufacturers still operate at this level of vertical integration — most depend on overseas contract factories for one or more stages of production (blade stamping, heat treatment, or final assembly often move offshore even for brands that market themselves as "American"). Bear & Son's "Built in the USA" claim is a genuinely-vertically-integrated claim, not a final-assembly-only claim.
The company operates three distinct product brands under the corporate umbrella. Bear & Son is the flagship line — traditional American pocket-knife patterns (Stockman, Trapper, Sodbuster, Canoe, Peanut, Congress, and others), fixed-blade hunting knives, the classic butterfly-knife line, and specialty Damascus-blade pieces. Bear Edge is the value-tier brand — budget-priced stainless folders and fixed blades that offer Bear & Son's manufacturing quality at an entry-level price point. Bear OPS is the tactical and automatic line — automatic-opening folders (switchblades), tactical fixed blades, and operator-grade designs. The company also owns Gatco, a sharpening-systems and kitchen-cutlery brand that handles Bear & Son's tangential-market exposure. All four brands are manufactured at the same Jacksonville facility.
The three butterfly knives (balisongs) in our catalog represent the traditional end of the American balisong market. All three use stainless steel blades, die-cast zinc handles with different finishes, and the classic "latch" closure mechanism that identifies a traditional-construction balisong. The Black Butterfly Knife ($45.31) is the entry-level model — black- anodized finish on the handles, satin stainless blade, the price-point balisong for first-time buyers or casual users. The Silver Vein Butterfly Knife ($54.38) uses Bear & Son's distinctive silver-grey veined anodizing on the handles — a finish that photographs well and has become the signature visual identity of the Bear balisong line. The Silver Vein Damascus Steel Butterfly Knife ($79.95) is the premium entry — same Silver Vein handle treatment paired with a pattern-welded Damascus steel blade. The Damascus pattern is produced by forge- welding multiple layers of contrasting steels (typically 1095 high-carbon and 15N20 nickel alloy), acid-etching the finished blade to reveal the layer pattern, and producing the characteristic wavy cloud pattern that has been the visual hallmark of premium bladework since medieval Damascus — the Syrian crossroads city the pattern is named for. For the broader balisong category and the full history of the Filipino butterfly knife, see our Butterfly Knives category.
The Bear OPS Auto Bold Action III Stiletto Knife ($119.63) is the tactical-line entry in our catalog — a classic Italian-style stiletto automatic folder with a 3.75-inch bayonet-profile blade, satin finish, and the "Bold Action" automatic-opening mechanism that deploys the blade with a single thumb-slide activation. The stiletto pattern dates to mid-20th-century Italian- American culture and became enduringly associated with the urban switchblade category that the 1958 Federal Switchblade Act attempted to regulate. Automatic folders remain legal to own in most US states but their carry is restricted in several jurisdictions — the same state-level legal considerations that apply to balisongs apply to automatics. For the full automatic-knife category see our Automatic Knives catalog.
Bear & Son's broader catalog extends well beyond the four SKUs Keep Shooting currently stocks. The complete Bear & Son traditional-pattern pocket-knife lineup includes more than 40 designs — Stockman (three-blade utility pattern that dates to 19th-century American farmers and ranchers), Trapper (two-blade hunting and trapping pattern with a distinctive clip-point primary), Sodbuster (single-blade work-knife pattern associated with German-American immigrant agricultural communities), Canoe, Peanut, Congress, and several specialty patterns with stag, bone, mother-of-pearl, and jigged-handle material options. The Bear Edge value line handles budget tactical and EDC folders; the Bear OPS line extends through multiple automatic patterns, tanto and drop-point tactical fixed blades, and operator-grade designs. If a specific Bear-family pattern isn't currently in our catalog but you're interested, contact our customer-service team — we have direct- dealer relationships with Bear & Son and can source additional SKUs on request.
Why choose a Bear & Son knife over a commodity import at a lower price point? Three reasons. First, traceable vertical manufacturing — every blade in the Bear lineup comes from the same Jacksonville factory, built by the same American workforce, under the same quality control, from raw material through final inspection. Second, family ownership continuity — the Griffey family owns the company, runs the factory, and makes the product decisions. There is no private-equity turnaround, no outsourced production, no supply-chain quality erosion between one production run and the next. Third, traditional American pattern preservation — Bear & Son is one of the last US manufacturers actively producing the full traditional-pattern pocket-knife catalog at scale. Stockman, Trapper, and Sodbuster pieces from Case, Schrade, and several other mid-century brands have either moved offshore or been discontinued; Bear is part of a shrinking set of American makers keeping those patterns in continuous domestic production.
Bear & Son products sit inside our broader Knives catalog, which covers the full range of Folding Knives, Fixed Blade Knives, Automatic Knives, Butterfly Knives, and Specialty Knives subcategories. Bear is one of the specialty-brand options in this catalog; our other dedicated balisong maker is Kershaw (Tualatin, Oregon). Between Bear & Son's traditional die-cast handle construction and Kershaw's channel-construction machined approach, our butterfly-knife catalog covers the full modern American balisong market.
Keep Shooting ships all Bear & Son Cutlery products from our Pennsylvania warehouse with free shipping on orders over $49.95 and hassle-free returns, subject to destination-state legal restrictions for the butterfly-knife and automatic-stiletto SKUs. Orders to states that prohibit balisongs or automatic knives will not ship; orders to restricted states may require additional documentation. Whether you're building a traditional-pattern pocket-knife collection, stocking a balisong lineup for the flipping community, picking up a Bear OPS automatic stiletto for your tactical rotation, or buying the Damascus Silver Vein as a collector-grade piece, every Bear & Son knife in our catalog is authentic factory-direct inventory from the Jacksonville, Alabama line — the same vertically-integrated family-owned American factory that has been producing genuinely-US-made cutlery under the Griffey family's stewardship for more than three decades.
Frequently Asked Questions — Bear & Son Cutlery
Yes, we maintain inventory of the most popular Bear & Son Cutlery products. Each product listing shows real-time stock status. If an item is temporarily out of stock, you can sign up for back-in-stock notifications on the product page.
Yes! All orders over $49.95 qualify for free shipping, including Bear & Son Cutlery products. Orders typically ship within 1–2 business days.
Keep Shooting offers hassle-free returns on Bear & Son Cutlery products. If you're not completely satisfied, contact our customer service team for a return authorization. All products must be in original, unused condition.
Yes, Keep Shooting is an authorized Bear & Son Cutlery dealer. All products are sourced directly and include full manufacturer warranty coverage.