Southbridge, Where Shoe Knives Come From

You just received your shoe knives in the mail. The label on the box says Southbridge, Massachusetts. 

Seeing the label makes you think. What kind of place is Southbridge, Massachusetts?

Southbridge is home to two-time Super Bowl champion John Fitzgerald, former Charlie Daniels Band member Joel DiGregorio, and professional wrestler Kenny Dykstra.

The town is also home to Hyde Industrial Blade Solutions, maker of shoe knives, banana knives, and other quality tools.

Southbridge is a great little town situated on the border between Massachusetts and Connecticut in the Quinebaug River Valley. 

Located in south-central Massachusetts, Southbridge is nearly equidistant from Springfield, Hartford, Providence, and Worcester—with Worcester being the closest of the four cities. As for Beantown, Southbridge is only about an hour’s drive from Boston.

You’ll find Hyde on 54 Eastford Road. That’s where your shoe knives are made. We’re east of the Oak Ridge Cemetery and north of the Cohasse Country Club.

Southbridge was first settled in 1730. It was incorporated on February 15, 1816. Before adopting its current name, the town was called “The Second Religious Society of Charlton” and “Honest Town.”

Southbridge has a population of about 17,000 and is a tick under 21 square miles.

An interesting note about Southbridge. It’s one of fourteen Massachusetts municipalities that has a city form of government but still wishes to be called, in an official capacity, a town.

So instead of “the city of Southbridge,” all municipal documents read “the town of Southbridge.”

As we mentioned earlier, Southbridge is home to Hyde IBS, maker of fine knives and blades. Interestingly, Southbridge is famous manufacturing something else, optical products. So famous, that it earned the nickname “Eye of the Commonwealth.”

Manufacturing, whether optical products, shoe knives, or anything else you can make at a mill, was natural for Southbridge. The town was/is able to harness water power from the Quinebaug River.

By the way, Hyde’s headquarters are located just south of the aforementioned watershed.

If you plan on visiting Southbridge, and we highly recommend that you do, consider visiting the Southbridge Public Library. It was founded in 1870 (five years before Hyde came into business) and accounts for one percent of the town’s budget.

Other places of interest include The Optical Heritage Museum, The Vienna Restaurant and Historic Inn, Gateway Players Theatre, and The Quinebaug Valley Council for the Arts and Humanities.

Southbridge does have an airport which has one operational runaway. It’s a ten-minute drive north of Hyde’s facilities.   

So now you know where your shoe knives, straight blades, and circular blades are manufactured. They are made in the town of Southbridge, Massachusetts at Hyde Industrial Blade Solutions.