Camillus Cutlery Company
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| Industry | Knife Manufacturer |
|---|---|
| Owner | Acme United Corporation |
| Website | Camillus Home |
The Camillus Cutlery Company was one of the oldest knife manufacturers in the United States as its roots date back to 1876. The Company produced millions of knives until it filed for bankruptcy in 2007 due to fierce overseas competition and bad business skills. Its brand name and intellectual property rights were purchased by Acme United Corporation, which re-launched the Camillus brand in May 2009 using modern materials.
The 14-year-old Adolph Kastor (1856–1946), son of a Jewish family from Wattenheim, Germany, immigrated to New York in 1870 where he started to work for his uncle Aaron Kastor in his hardware supply business, Bodenheim, Meyer & Company. He was first put in charge of cow chains but gradually worked his way up to the firearms and cutlery department.
In 1873, Bodenheim, Meyer & Company lost one of its founders and restructured as Meyer & Kastor. Due to poor sales figures, Meyer & Kastor had to close doors in September 1876. Only a few weeks later, Adolph Kastor started his own company, Adolph Kastor & Bros. on Canal Street in New York City, where he imported and distributed German-made knives.
In 1897, when the Dingley Tariff was enacted, the knives became too expensive to import. The only solution Kastor saw was to manufacture knives domestically. Eventually, his search led him to Charles Sherwood and his small knife manufacturing business in Camillus.
With Adolph Kastor in the driver’s seat, the company started to expand. They bought new machinery, such as steam driven drop forge hammers and fly presses and they adopted new techniques, like using alumina grinding wheels. By 1910, the Camillus Cutlery Company was producing close to a million knives a year and had about 200 employees, many of them German immigrants. The company even built a dormitory to house its German workers.
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Wikipedia