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The cutlery business of the United States has an interesting history. While the American manufacturer of table cutlery has to a large extent in fact almost wholly driven out the foreign goods, by reason of the excellence of quality and the economy of manufacture, the pocket cutlery makers have not been so successful. However, they are to day making a very considerable proportion of the goods that are consumed in the United States and the goods they manufacture are fully equal of anything made abroad. But when it is remembered tat the cost of making pocket knives is eighty five percent labor and fifteen percent material, it can be seen how difficult it is for the manufacture of pocket knives in this country to compete with the cheap labor of England and Germany, and that he must rely greatly upon their excellence of quality, their beauty of design, and their taste in finish. The origin of pocketknives in this country is traced back to the state of Connecticut, as is so much in the hardware line, beginning in the year 1842. The establishment of five other in the same state quickly followed the first factory. The result of this was that many of the best English operatives from the works in Sheffield came here, because they could find steady employment and higher wages than they had previously known. After a while some of these operatives combined their experience and savings and formed a company in the village of Waldren, N.Y, on the cooperative plan, which is today the largest concern of the kind in the united states. The pocketknife industry of this country is unquestionably in New York and Connecticut. Of fifty-five ventures since 1844 more than thirty-two have experienced failure, owing chiefly to their shortsighted policy of making goods for price rather than for merit. Attempting to compete with the cheap labor of the old country in price rather than in the excellence of quality and finish. The successful ones (as is always the case) have been the longheaded businessmen, following the time honored principle that the best is always the cheapest. A large majority of these pocketknife manufactories have been founded on the cooperative plan, located in small villages where cheap waterpower was abundant. Today the investment represents about $1,800,000, with the employment of about 2000 persons. During prosperous times the consumption of pocket cutlery in the United States is in the neighborhood of 1,200,000 dozen per annum, representing perhaps $3,000,000. The larger part of this is imported from Germany and England, in the proportion of two to one in favor of Germany. Prior to 1850 the American market was supplied almost entirely from England, but the cheaper German grades are gradually driving out the higher priced English goods. The home made product has steadily improved in quality, and while it is not always as absolutely uniform as the English product, yet the best American knives are not surpassed by anything produced in Sheffield, and is far superior to the German in quality, temper, and finish. The genius of American manufactures is much handicapped in one respect, by the impossibility. So far of employing any labor saving machinery worth mentioning, since the quality of the knife depends entirely upon the skill in manipulation and tempering of the mechanic. Although there is no export business in pocket cutlery, the manufactures, at time have given evidence of what they can do in the line of cheapness. Recently a single blade knife with a wood handle, all handsomely finish, of a quality of steel which would take a razor edge, was produced by the manufactures so cheaply that after the jobber and retailer had each had his profit it passed into the hands of the consumer to ten cents. I do recall in all my business experience an article of so much value was given for so little money. Let me put it more plainly and emphasize it. I think this ten-cent knife is the cheapest thing I have ever seen, quality and usefulness considered. And bear in mind it is made in the United States. The complexity of the business may be gathered from the statement that in the manufacture of pocket knives it is necessary to import mother of pearl from the Philippine Islands, tortoise shell from the Indies, stag horn from the parks and forests of Germany and India, ebony from the spicy isle of Ceylon and from Madagascar, cocoa wood from unhappy Cuba, and rosewood from south America. Those of us who can recall our boyhood experiences when the village blacksmith was the recognized cutlery, and the exceedingly low prices at which these goods are sold. Table cutlery was first manufactured in this country in 1832, before which period everything in this line came from England. Within thirty years thereafter, or say by 1865, the business was pretty much in the hands of the home manufactures, and has been drifting steadily that way ever since, so that in the year 1893 the entire amount of foreign table cutlery imported into the united states was only $195,000, and there was not five percent of the consumption of this country exported. The table cutlery made in the United States, and especially the medium grade article, far excels in beauty, finish and design all foreign goods. Foreigners have made attempts to copy American patterns of table cutlery, but in no instance were they successful in producing so good an article, and the effort was finally abandoned. The state of Maine was probably the birthplace and cradle of the manufacture of table cutlery, the first effort being made at Saccarappa. In the market of the world there is no such great middle class as there is in the United States, and for that reason there is specifically a demand for medium grade, well finished goods in this country which does not exist in others, and which makes it possible to manufacture more largely of this class of table cutlery exported is a mere trifle-probably not more than five percent of the product of the country. The estimated value of the production of the various table cutlery manufactories of this country is $3,000,000. American shear makers have set the pace for the world in that line of goods. They were the first to solve the problem to welding a high-grade steel blade to an iron backing or soft casting made to fit the hand. This was the invention of Seth Boyden in 1826. The manufacture of shears in this country was started in a crude way the year before, at Elizabeth port, N.J. welding by hand was carried on from that date until early in the sixties, when a drop hammer was contracted by Mr. H. Wendt, the ram of which was raised by the friction of a rope pulled by hand around a revolving wheel or pulley. This rope later gave way to a flat leather strap, and was afterward succeeded by power drop hammers operating by friction rolls upon a flat board, under perfect control by the foot of the operator, the hands being free for the proper manipulation of the work. Out American shears are far superior to those made in foreign countries, and are exported in great quantities, especially to England, South American, and Australia. None of the foreign countries has be adopted our method of manufacturing shears, and for that reason their goods do not compare with the American product. There are eight manufacturers engaged in this business in this country; total capital about $750,000, employing about 1000 people with a product of about $1,500,000.
In the manufacture of fine mechanics tools, such as are used by
the higher class of machinists, the United States is the peer of
any country. Today one of the foremost concerns in this
line, located in Providence, R.I., sends its tools to England,
France, and Germany, where they are called for and given
preference because of their great accuracy and almost infallible
uniformity of manufacture. As illustration of the esteem
in which they are held is shown in the fact that these American
tools are used in the manufacture of the new French rifle which
is attracting so much attention. Some idea of the
exactness of such work may be gathered from the statement this
in the production of fine firearms it is necessary that
thousands of parts should be interchangeable and should not vary
by the thousandth part of an inch. Some of the micrometer
calipers from these works will measure the two hundred and fifty
thousandth part of a inch with accuracy; and this same firm, the
Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company, have in their office a
tools whereby the difference in diameter between two steel bars
of the ten thousandth part of an inch is made perceptible to
both the eye and the touch. In the fact of such excellence
as this, is it any wonder that the export business in this class
of goods should be growing rapidly?
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