In 1981, Bob Cargill formed Cripple Creek Cutlery in Lockport, Illinois. His goal was the revival of old-time patterns and production of them in limited numbers. Cargill had been involved in collecting antique factory made knives for a number of years and had served several years as a factory authorized repairman for W. R. Case & Sons Cutlery. More recently, he had been a custom knife maker for half dozen years and many of his custom knives were patterned after antique favorites. Cripple Creek was the fruition of a dream to apply modern day handcrafting methods with age-old favorite knives.