Camillus knives
The Camillus Cutlery Company was one of the oldest knife manufacturers in the United States. The company was started by a German immigrant named Adolph Kastor. Adolph moved to New York in 1870 and began working for his uncle Aaron Kastor who ran a hardware supply business called Bodenheim, Meyer & Company. He was put in charge of cow chains but later on moved into firearms and cutlery department. In 1873 the company changed its name to Meyer & Kastor. Due to poor sales the company closed its doors in September 1876, and Adolph then started his own company called Adolph Kastor & Bros on Canal Street in New York. Here he imported and distributed German-made knives. When the Dingley Tarrif came into place in 1897 the knives were too expensive to import, so Kastor had to find a more domestic manufacturer, which he did, and in 1902, he purchased a small knife manufacturer in Camillus, New York, and assumed control from Charles Sherwood. The company had 20 cutlers who produced about 15 different knife patterns. He added new machinery in 1910, such as steam driven drop forge hammers and fly presses, adopting new techniques, like using alumina grinding wheels. By 1910 The Camillus Cutlery Company had around 200 employees, many of them German immigrants, and was producing close to a million knives a year. Due to the vast work that they were making, they built a dormitory to house their German workers. When World War I started, the company shifted production to show support to the American, British, Canadian and Dutch forces. They even produced products such as marlinspikes, surgical scalpels and a folding knife/spoon combination for the Red Cross. After the war they introduced stainless steel to their production line and started to make collectible character knives, which honoured such famous people like George Washington, Babe Ruth and Buck Rogers They began to produce products for private labels such as Sears Craftsman, F.W. Woolworth and many others. Between 1942 and 1945 during World War II, Camillus shipped 15 million knives of various styles to the allied forces, which included large fixed-blade fighting knives, machetes, multi blade camp style knives, electricians knives and sailors marlin spikes. In 1947, Camillus started to manufacturer a full line of official folding knives for the Boys Scouts of America, which they continued to do until their closure. Sadly, in 2006 the company went through months of strikes by employees, due to changes in their contracts, such as steep wage cuts and reduced vacation allowances. The company said that these reductions were necessary to face off stiff overseas competition. Even though the striking workers accepted the original contract, the company only retained a small proportion of their original employees and laid the rest off. The company then filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors on February 28th 2007. 169 to choose from.
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