Clauss Cutlery Company Clauss Cutlery Company Clauss Cutlery is a cutlery brand owned by the Acme United Corporation since 2004. It was founded as Elyria Shear Works in 1877 by John and Henrie Clauss in Elyria, Ohio. At one time the company was the largest manufacturer of scissors and shears in the world. The two brothers John and Henrie Clauss, of German origin, started Elyria Shear Works from a one-room building in Elyria, Ohio. Together with five employees, they began manufacturing scissors, shears, straight razors and serrated kitchen knives. In the early 1880s, with his shear business prospering, John Clauss planned a major
Clauss Cutlery Company Clauss didn't live long to enjoy that success as he died later that year. In the early 1920s the cutlery business faced a serious setback as Germany was permitted to export shears and scissors duty-free to the United States. The idea behind this was to help Germany pay back its World War I debts. As a consequence, German shears sold at half the price of American made shears. Despite the fierce German competition, Fremont counted twenty-five cutlery businesses and was known as the "Cutlery Center of the World". After World War II, Henkel–Clauss was unable to compete with European firms