Camillus Closed

[Codger_64]

Gents, believe it or not, once upon a time, the employees were of top importance with both Schrade and Camillus. I could quote you instances where both companies' management/owners went the tenth mile to ensure their employees had not only good working conditions, but financial rewards and job security. I could show you payroll records of men and women back early last century which showed the workers pay scales, raise bumps, promotions, departmental transfers when requested by the employees. I could show you the programs put in place for employee health, unheard of in that day and time. And I can show you how a kid from the shipping room fresh out of high school can become the ace salesman, eventually to build the world's largest cutlery empire.

There was a reason why a German, Itallian, Hungarian craftsman's son, and his son, daughter, and wife would be found all working at Schrade or Camillus. And a reason as to why Camillus struggled along for four years after what was, as few realize, the death of the bigger sister company, Imperial Schrade. The guts and determination of the workers.

It is ironic, though perhaps a fitting tribute to the heritage of those workers, that both companies were at a zenith of producing some great knives. Some of the best work done by creative designers and craftsmen. And now also ironicly, we see stories emerge of selfless employees with decades of service to their craft and to the company and it's customers, come to the fore with one last effort. The repair and return of countless knives when they are under no obligation to do anything but walk away. The same thing happened at Schrade, the fellow paying the shipping from his own pocket. To him, a matter of honor.

Thank you Ron. And thank you Maureen, and all of you for your service. I hope that you, Tom, Phil, cookie, knifeworker and other former employees will continue to come here from time to time and share with us. You are all a part of a heritage, of the history of the great American cutlerys.

Codger

 

[cjpgeyer]

The Beckers were quite an accomplishment in their price range. I only have a Necker, and it is a heck of a knife at twice the price. I just can't help but think that each time a register at Wal-mart opens, an American craftsman loses a job; for each new Wal-mart superstore, another American icon of industry closes.

 

[rpassardi]

On the returned knives at the plant. As of 2/27/07 i have for the last two weeks been doing nothing but customer repairs.I took it upon myself to make sure that every customer got what BELONGED to THEM BACK. They owned the knives and in many cases the ones i could not find parts for i replaced with newer style parts or new knives.Their are still a few of us here that believe in taking care of our loyal customers.Now the trick is finding the money to get them shipped back out but rest assured i will be jumping all over those in charge to get my work sent back out.

 

[Danno4017]

For all that care, Camillus Cutlery will close Wed.
Good luck to all!!!!!!!!
No other info was given to us. Just that our last day will be Wed.:barf:

Mate, I am sorry to hear of another great companies demise, it seems to be the way of the world.
Companies are made up of lots of things, Factories, products etc but most of all PEOPLE.
I hope that you and your co-workers and their families get looked after and compensated for your efforts.
Good luck in the future in whatever endeavours you undertake.
You have my condolences my friend.

 

[Horn Dog]

I really hate to see Camillus close. I hate it for American workers. We allow Red China to sell here without tarrifs and expect American companies to compete with slave wages. Seems like most of the skilled American workers in machinery, guns, and knives were in the Northeast. This must be devastating for those skilled workers up there. Schrade gone to China, Camillus gone. Winchester gone to Japan. I carried a Camillus knife in Viet Nam. We called them Ka-Bars, but they were made by Camillus. Its a sad day.
How is it that we "won" the cold war? Greedy American businessmen could not wait to "invest" in Viet Nam, after our government let the communists come and take it. I think we owe American workers something. Without America's industrial might, WW II could not have been won. Now we have to work for Mexican wages. Something has gone terribly wrong.

 

[Danno4017]

On the returned knives at the plant. As of 2/27/07 i have for the last two weeks been doing nothing but customer repairs.I took it upon myself to make sure that every customer got what BELONGED to THEM BACK. They owned the knives and in many cases the ones i could not find parts for i replaced with newer style parts or new knives.Their are still a few of us here that believe in taking care of our loyal customers.Now the trick is finding the money to get them shipped back out but rest assured i will be jumping all over those in charge to get my work sent back out.

You are a credit to the Company and deserved better mate

 

[Danno4017]

I really hate to see Camillus close. I hate it for American workers. We allow Red China to sell here without tarrifs and expect American companies to compete with slave wages. Seems like most of the skilled American workers in machinery, guns, and knives were in the Northeast. This must be devastating for those skilled workers up there. Schrade gone to China, Camillus gone. Winchester gone to Japan. I carried a Camillus knife in Viet Nam. We called them Ka-Bars, but they were made by Camillus. Its a sad day.
How is it that we "won" the cold war? Greedy American businessmen could not wait to "invest" in Viet Nam, after our government let the communists come and take it. I think we owe American workers something. Without America's industrial might, WW II could not have been won. Now we have to work for Mexican wages. Something has gone terribly wrong.

Victor I fear for the future.
I think in the next few decades the power will shift to Asia, The USA may well be on the decline.
The worry is that "empires" and great nations of the past such as, Rome, Greece, Spain, France and Great Britain that slowly accepted their loss of power and status did not have the military power and technology of the USA.
If the USA is isolated in the future and no longer weilds the industrial power it once had what will happen?
WAR, its already happening and it will get worse.
I wish this was not the case but everything is heading this way, Iran is next.

 

[Bob W]

Those OVBs were hard to get when they were being made!
I seriously doubt there are that many on the shelf anywhere.
If I'm wrong, I'll get myself a few spares.

Yeah, I was mostly joking. It seems Camillus products have been dwindling at dealers over the past month or more. Quite the opposite of what happened with Schrade - the market was flooded with "end of days" oddities, overstocks, and closouts.

What an epitaph! Becker, CQB, OVB, CUDA 18-Xray, went out of business making some of the best knives we ever made.

I agree with that. The Beckers and OVB products were among the nicest and most interesting knives on the market. I found the OVB to be overpriced, but the Becker lineup was a real bargain. Wish I had bought a couple more...

You could be next......

Yep, what comes around goes around. Go back in time and drive by a tech company/call center parking lot in 1995. See what cars are predominate? But then they cried like babies when their jobs went the same way as the automotive workers'.

On the returned knives at the plant. As of 2/27/07 i have for the last two weeks been doing nothing but customer repairs.I took it upon myself...

That's the nicest thing I've read all week. I'd be proud to own a knife that you made or repaired. :thumbup:

-Bob

 

[Dragon_Man]

Very sad to hear that Camillus is gone. The Becker BK7 and BK9 are my favorite hard use knives. My first knife was a Camillus Cub Scout knife. Man does this suck.

 

[JD Mandrell]

Sad news, Camillus knives will be missed, not only thier house name knives, but the many contract knives they made.

 

[Codger_64]

From today's Syracuse Post Standard

http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/stories/index.ssf?/base/business-7/1172657045127490.xml&coll=1



Camillus Cutlery's Era Comes to Close
Embattled manufacturer to shut its doors for final time

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

By Tim Knauss
Staff writer

From 1942 to 1945, Camillus Cutlery Co. made more than 15 million knives for U.S. soldiers. The company's 700 employees filled three shifts.

After the war, the cutlery thrived making Boy Scout knives, hunting knives and a variety of other blades.

But Camillus Cutlery has been decimated in recent years, the victim of tough competition from foreign manufacturers.

At the end of business today, the company will close, leaving its remaining three dozen employees without jobs, said Kathy Westcott, president of United Steelworkers Local 4783, the union representing company workers.

"This place used to be an excellent place to work," said Westcott, who took her first job at the cutlery nearly 30 years ago. "It's very upsetting."

Westcott said she does not believe workers will receive a severance package. The managers and owners of the family-owned business declined to comment, according to a woman who answers the phones.

Camillus Cutlery is one of several knife manufacturers to succumb to foreign competition, said David Barrack, executive director of the American Edged Products Manufacturers Association. Several manufacturers have shut down or curtailed operations in recent years, including Imperial Schrade Corp., once the largest knife manufacturer in the world, which closed in 2004.

"It's really staggering the number of companies that have closed as a result of offshore competition and the rising cost of doing business here in the United States," Barrack said.

The cutlery trade group petitioned the U.S. International Trade Commission during the 1980s for relief from low-priced imports but failed to persuade the commission to impose duties, Barrack said.

The original growth of Camillus Cutlery can be traced to such duties imposed during the 19th century.

Adolph Kastor, the German immigrant who built Camillus Cutlery into a name brand, started a New York City business in 1876 to import German-made knives. He sought a manufacturing operation only after tariffs imposed in 1897 made the blades too expensive to import, according to a company history.

In 1902, Kastor bought a 20-person cutlery in Camillus that had been founded by Charles Sherwood in 1894. Camillus Cutlery has always operated in the heart of the village, its buildings sprawled alongside Nine Mile Creek.

Mayor Ed Fletcher said he was shocked by news of the closing.

"It's our image," he said. "We're known as Camillus Cutlery."

The village erected four road signs in 1999 that say, "Welcome to the village of Camillus, home of the world famous Camillus Cutlery."

Struggling with foreign competition, the business endured a bitter six-month-long strike in 2006. When the strike ended in November, the company hired back only 15 of the 78 workers who had gone out.

In the aftermath of the strike, employees assumed the end was near, said Bill Slate, 35, of Warners, who has worked at the plant for 15 years.

"We kind of knew," he said.

The federal government has made union employees of the company eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance, because their jobs were lost to foreign competition. That gives them access to extended unemployment insurance, training and other benefits, Westcott said.

Sixteen of the roughly 35 employees are union members, Westcott said.

Westcott, whose only job has been at the cutlery, said there were more than 400 employees when she started as a 20-year-old in 1977. She spent her next-to-last day packing Boy Scout knives into boxes.

"Oh, kids," she said, "You just don't realize."

You can contact Staff Writer Tim Knauss at tknauss@syracuse.com or 470-3023.




Codger

 

[ashtxsniper]

Just out of curiousity what companies didnt have camillus make some of there knives. So far I have found they made knives for Cold Steel, Becker, and Buck. Who else?

 

[radicat]

Mini enron? huh?
Nobody is in business for the purpose of providing employment.

Unions and workers who demand way way more than they are worth are likely to blame for the demise of Camillus Cutlery. Its too bad factory workers think theyre worth so damn much that a companies only choices are to either close completely, or be extorted for absurd amounts of money for generally low skilled workers.

I get frustrated when I see news clips of people picketing a factory, demanding more money when they are already making far more than theyre worth. Automakers are closing plants, and nearly all have high tailed it out of CNY... And the fact is, some people who do the most simplest of jobs in these plants are making upwards of 70k. Basically jobs a chimp could do. I hate to say it, but when unions demand ridiculous amounts of money and benefits, companies have no choice but to rake consumers over the coals and raise prices for products that are increasingly becoming inferior. I say close up shop.. Let the bastards who can never be happy with a fair wage try unemployment.

It's one thing to keep your mouth shut and appear to be stupid, but another to open it and prove it!! Somebody get a rope!!!

 

[Codger_64]

Just out of curiousity what companies didnt have camillus make some of there knives. So far I have found they made knives for Cold Steel, Becker, and Buck. Who else?

Oh, Lordy! Well, Sears Craftsman, U.S. Government, Imperial Schrade, Smoky Mountain Knife Works, Moore Maker, ummm... Hey Phil! List 'em!!!

Codger

 

[cookie9]

Ashtxsniper and Codger 64
With all my free time I plan to list all brands that we made proudly at the plant. Stay tuned.
Cookie

 

[orvet]

Mini enron? huh?
Nobody is in business for the purpose of providing employment.

Unions and workers who demand way way more than they are worth are likely to blame for the demise of Camillus Cutlery. Its too bad factory workers think theyre worth so damn much that a companies only choices are to either close completely, or be extorted for absurd amounts of money for generally low skilled workers.

I get frustrated when I see news clips of people picketing a factory, demanding more money when they are already making far more than theyre worth. Automakers are closing plants, and nearly all have high tailed it out of CNY... And the fact is, some people who do the most simplest of jobs in these plants are making upwards of 70k. Basically jobs a chimp could do. I hate to say it, but when unions demand ridiculous amounts of money and benefits, companies have no choice but to rake consumers over the coals and raise prices for products that are increasingly becoming inferior. I say close up shop.. Let the bastards who can never be happy with a fair wage try unemployment.

Well kjr,
You are apparently a newcomer to the Camillus story. I carried a Camillus all through Vietnam, in fact my entire time in the Marine Corps. I was even able to hang on to it when I was med-evaced home. I have been a fan ever since.

Last year during the strike, I read what the workers were striking for, not for better wages (they were rolling in the dough at about $11.50 per hour :jerkit: ), they were striking so they didn't loose the few benefits they had and take a pay cut. The minimum wage in Oregon is $7.80/hr. Now I cannot fault a worker with 15-25 years experience with the company for wanting to make $15 - $20/hr. They were skilled in their craft and deserved to be fairly compensated for their work. I do not believe they were fairly compensated.

Businesses are in business to make money, just like the employee. If the company doesn't make money the employee doesn't have a job.........which is what you see here.

This is not a result of greed on the part of the employees or the union. You can thank our elected officials who have tilted the world market against the American made product and in so doing, against the American worker. You can also thank the American shopper who only looks at the price and not the quality or other factors when purchasing a product. You can also thank the big box stores like WalMart for demanding lower prices each year for the same product, without caring about the manufacturer and his financial well being.

But DO NOT blame the workers at Camillus for the demise of their company. Especially when we hear the story of people like Ron, who is repairing knives on his own time for the customers. The workers had a great deal of pride in their company. I am privileged to a number of their knives.

Dale

 

[CRKS]

kjr

Please see the Ron P (KONGO) thread and then restate your opinion.

Not everything is as it seems. Many Highly skilled Knife Workers lost their jobs. I'm sure like many situations there are good and bad. But that goes for the company as too.

 

[Rocinante]

Oh, Lordy! Well, Sears Craftsman, U.S. Government, Imperial Schrade, Smoky Mountain Knife Works, Moore Maker, ummm... Hey Phil! List 'em!!!

Codger

Don't forget two big ones, Remington and Western.

 

[ashtxsniper]

wow way more than I thought.

 

[radicat]

Ashtxsniper and Codger 64
With all my free time I plan to list all brands that we made proudly at the plant. Stay tuned.
Cookie

Cookie, I can't think of a better way to honor all of those that made Camillus a household name. I hope others will join you in your quest.
I applaud you.