Codger_64
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The more they stay the same!
A young teen left his family home in Germany and came to America in 1870, just five years after the end of the American Civil War. Landing in New York City, he went under the sponsorship of his uncle, Aaron Kastor, minor partner in Bodenheim, Meyer, and Kastor of New York City, importers of guns, cutlery, and hardware from Belgium, England, and Germany, mostly sold in the South where, until 1865, senior partner Henry Bodenheim had his hardware business. The fourteen year old boy Henry hired was Adolph Kastor.
Adolph started, as would be expected, from the bottom up, working as a stockboy in the basement of BM&K in their business located at Duane and Thomas street, New York. Before long, he felt the urge to start his own cutlery business and in 1876, then only 20 years old, Adolph Kastor founded the predecessor to Camillus Knife Company on Canal Street in New York City as Adolph Kastor & Bros., an importer. The short-lived Dingly tariff act introduced in 1897 by President McKinley at the urging of Thomas Bradley of New York Knife Company made importing knives quite expensive, nearly doubling the price of imported knives. This act was passed with the aid of the association of President McKinley. In 1902 the Camillus NY., factory owned by Charles Sherwood, a converted grain mill with 20 employees turning out 15 patterns of penknives, was bought by Adolph Kastor, who began manufacturing high-quality cutlery locally rather than deal with the high tariffs associated with importing cutlery.
Unable to produce sufficient quantities of knives to fill orders (He acquired a Sears Roebuck contract circa 1902), importation still continued on a regular basis. By 1910, production numbers in the Camillus plant reached 902,976 knives. He was able to do this in part by importing cutlers from Germany. But importation was still an important adjunct to the business. Knives were imported from Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. These knives bore tangstamps with Americanized names, two of which were A.W. Wadsworth & Sons Germany (circa 1905-1922), and W.H. Morley & Sons (circa 1913-1927). These knives often bore the four leaf clover stamp of the Cloverbrand U.S.A trademark Kastor began using on the New York knives in 1903, and the XLNT mark. Kastor, Camillus Cutlery Company, and Sword Brand were used on the Camillus, New York produced knives. The tang marking Syracuse Knife Company N.Y. was added during the 1935-1940 period, and revived as Syracuse Knife Company Poland for imports circa 1975-1976.
Nearly every U.S. manufacturer today has some knives imported. And some of them are of quite good quality. Some of the Imperial Schrades came from Ireland and Germany, Mexico, Thiers France, and near the end, even China. Some of the Camillus knives in the last ten years also were sourced in China. It isnt a new phenomenon, and is likely to continue. Americans have always been driven by the price of goods, as much as by quality.
Codger
A young teen left his family home in Germany and came to America in 1870, just five years after the end of the American Civil War. Landing in New York City, he went under the sponsorship of his uncle, Aaron Kastor, minor partner in Bodenheim, Meyer, and Kastor of New York City, importers of guns, cutlery, and hardware from Belgium, England, and Germany, mostly sold in the South where, until 1865, senior partner Henry Bodenheim had his hardware business. The fourteen year old boy Henry hired was Adolph Kastor.
Adolph started, as would be expected, from the bottom up, working as a stockboy in the basement of BM&K in their business located at Duane and Thomas street, New York. Before long, he felt the urge to start his own cutlery business and in 1876, then only 20 years old, Adolph Kastor founded the predecessor to Camillus Knife Company on Canal Street in New York City as Adolph Kastor & Bros., an importer. The short-lived Dingly tariff act introduced in 1897 by President McKinley at the urging of Thomas Bradley of New York Knife Company made importing knives quite expensive, nearly doubling the price of imported knives. This act was passed with the aid of the association of President McKinley. In 1902 the Camillus NY., factory owned by Charles Sherwood, a converted grain mill with 20 employees turning out 15 patterns of penknives, was bought by Adolph Kastor, who began manufacturing high-quality cutlery locally rather than deal with the high tariffs associated with importing cutlery.
Unable to produce sufficient quantities of knives to fill orders (He acquired a Sears Roebuck contract circa 1902), importation still continued on a regular basis. By 1910, production numbers in the Camillus plant reached 902,976 knives. He was able to do this in part by importing cutlers from Germany. But importation was still an important adjunct to the business. Knives were imported from Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. These knives bore tangstamps with Americanized names, two of which were A.W. Wadsworth & Sons Germany (circa 1905-1922), and W.H. Morley & Sons (circa 1913-1927). These knives often bore the four leaf clover stamp of the Cloverbrand U.S.A trademark Kastor began using on the New York knives in 1903, and the XLNT mark. Kastor, Camillus Cutlery Company, and Sword Brand were used on the Camillus, New York produced knives. The tang marking Syracuse Knife Company N.Y. was added during the 1935-1940 period, and revived as Syracuse Knife Company Poland for imports circa 1975-1976.
Nearly every U.S. manufacturer today has some knives imported. And some of them are of quite good quality. Some of the Imperial Schrades came from Ireland and Germany, Mexico, Thiers France, and near the end, even China. Some of the Camillus knives in the last ten years also were sourced in China. It isnt a new phenomenon, and is likely to continue. Americans have always been driven by the price of goods, as much as by quality.
Codger
