The "Montana Power Co. Knife"

A revisit to a knife I touched on briefly, 'Oh so long ago'.
Back then I said that it had been made for the war effort by employees of the Anaconda Co.
It all made sense to me.
First off, Bill Wright wrote it.
And, there was a big Anaconda Co. aluminum smelter in Great Falls.
I remember it as an aluminum smelter although in the beginning, when "the world's largest stack" went into operation, it seems the focus was copper.
Anyway, aluminum production depends on electricity - lots of it.
Recently, before our modern world fell apart, Iceland was building dams to power aluminum smelters. Smelters which would be refining bauxite (aluminum "ore" Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the earth's crust and only the second most abundant element - behind silica. Everything contains aluminum, some things more than others. Like bauxite - high-aluminum dirt) that came from ... somewhere else.
Enter; Rainbow Dam.
Aluminum plants follow hydro-power like buzzards.
So, new info on the "Industrial, Montana Theater Knives" of WW2.
Courtesy (again) of Frank Trzaska.



"We received from correspondent Steven Briggs a copy of the "Energizer" , a Montana Power Employees Magazine that is undated. In the company newsletter is an article on knives made by the employees in their spare time during World War Two. The article goes into some details from the guys who made the knives and where they were made, it is great reading. The knives have been attributed as Anaconda Copper Knives in the past and some of the work was performed there on them. The knives are actually Montana Power Co. knives as these are the guys who made them. Anaconda Co. employees stamped out the blades from power saw blades but all the rest of the work was performed in various Montana Power Co. shops. The knives were distributed to the troops through the many troop trains that crossed Montana. The knives were distributed directly to the troops. Overall they the men stated they made close to 1200 knives in 1942 & 43 and every piece of the raw material was "bummed" to do it. Great Americans!"