Grit Magazine, and My Idea of ‘A Cute Knife Company’

Posted on 26 September 2007 under Knives, Magazines, Recipes

‘Cute’ knives. You know the ones. Churches sell them at fundraisers. Flea market vendors sell them in large plastic cups. They’re the ones with the roundish shiny aluminum handles, the ones in mom’s kitchen drawer … my mom has, like, 5 of the things, all paring knives. She uses them for everything, from cutting veggies and potatoes, to cutting grilled steak on a plate. All my relatives have them, somewhere or other, and they sometimes find their way here. They don’t seem to get dull either.

They’re weird simply because they’re everywhere. If someone wanted to know what was going on in households around this country, just put bugs in those aluminum knife handles. Scary, that … but where do they come from?

Yesterday I was digging through a Meijer looking for birthday gifts for Mary when I spotted Grit magazine on the shelves. The subtitle, “America’s Rural Lifestyle Magazine for 125 Years”, was what really caught my eye. How many magazines in this country have lasted that long? There aren’t many that can make that claim, so I was a bit curious. Looking through it, I found a great article for reader JEP … 6 different recipes for cole slaw! There are other great food articles as well, including one on canning, another on country cafés, and a section called Recipe Box, with info and recipes from the National Chicken Cooking Contest. I had no idea there was such a thing …

In the back of the printed magazine is a small ad for a company called Rada Cutlery. Man, that image looked familiar … I went to the Rada Cutlery web site… so that’s where those beasties come from! Yup, this is the one, that’s for sure:

Rada Cutlery was originally manufactured starting in 1948 as a fund raiser for churches. Over the years the line grew to include various sizes of knives, utensils, and other related items. As the line grew more businesses became interested in selling Rada Cutlery in their stores and at fairs or flea markets. Rada Mfg. Co. enjoys working with many types of Resellers and has purposefully avoided selling to large retailers. We enjoy working with many smaller customers rather than a few large customers.

Fundraiser packages, home parties, distribute through anyone who wants to distribute … they make other products as well, such as soup, bread and dip mixes, stoneware, cookbooks …

Their model R101 is the one my mom can’t seem to have enough of. Have you seen these in kitchen drawers or in-use among family and friends anywhere? If so, where?

Read Comments

  1. 26 September 2007 @ 2:48 pm Posted by JEP

    You are awesome–thanks! Love the cole slaw & cabbage link. I have never heard of Grit magazine but now I will look at Barnes & Noble for one. Your “cute knife” info is new to me–thanks for sharing–hope you continue to find more for your mom :)

  2. 26 September 2007 @ 4:10 pm Posted by LunaPierCook

    I like this magazine, JEP … I’m starting to think it’s worthy of a subscription.

  3. 26 September 2007 @ 7:11 pm Posted by MonroeMom

    Hey, LPC, you can get that knife here: http://myknifestore.net/rada-cutlery-c-21.html

    My mom loved those, too!! ;0)

  4. 27 September 2007 @ 2:29 am Posted by LunaPierCook

    MonroeMom, I’ve found these at the outlet centers at exit 11 on I-75 … but I’ve also realized the last couple sentences of this post aren’t what I meant! I’ll go back and change them … ;-)

  5. 27 September 2007 @ 5:16 pm Posted by Eric Braun

    Greetings from San Antonio!

    When I was a kid I sold grit door to door for a good long while. I’m kind of surprised to see it on store shelves. For years it’s thing was that it helped kids make money.

    Very old school community journlism. I figured it was still around somewhere, but I haven’t seen it in forever.

    Hope all is well!

  6. 27 September 2007 @ 6:25 pm Posted by LunaPierCook

    Eric, I’d wondered where you’d landed! It became obvious a couple weeks ago you were no longer where you used to be.

    I’d not heard of Grit until I found it the other day at Meijer. I’ll have to ask my parents if they’d heard of it, as both families were heavily into farming.

    Thanks for checking in … stay in touch!

  7. 29 September 2007 @ 11:22 pm Posted by joey randall

    Good grief! I haven’t heard the name GRIT mentioned in eons!

    My brother (Linwood Mi) delivered the Grit ages ago as part of his paper route. God forbid! 10 years younger, I often helped deliver as he juggled several jobs … then snuck several dimes out of a cigar box filled with his hard earned $$$. I will someday pay dearly!!!

  8. 1 August 2008 @ 11:07 am Posted by Jean Teller

    Hi from Grit! Thanks so much for the kind words, LPC, about Grit and the mention of our cole slaw recipes. Thought you and your readers might be interested to know that Grit’s Web site has recently been redesigned - and looks great, if I do say so myself! - and there are a couple of items everyone might like to see.

    One is a recent Recipe Box article, “Cooking with Mom,” which reminds me of your post on your mother’s mac and cheese! Check out
    http://www.grit.com/Food/Cooking-with-Mom.aspx

    And we are in the midst of The Great Potato Salad Debate! More blogs will be added in the near future.
    http://www.grit.com/potato-salad.aspx

    Or people can comment on our forum.
    http://www.grit.com/forums/forum.aspx?boardid=214&g=posts&t=2954

    I’m going to explore your site closely - looks like some great recipes to add to my collection!

    Jean Teller
    Grit Magazine
    http://www.Grit.com

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