Clauss Cutlery closes after 117 years

10/1/2004

FREMONT Clauss Cutlery, which helped establish Fremont as a national center of knife and blade manufacturing, has closed here after 117 years.

About five remaining employees were let go yesterday, one month after the company ceased manufacturing here, said Larry Way, president of parent firm, Alco Industries, of Norristown, Pa. About 25 employees were affected in all.

The company official blamed the move on declining profitability. A buyer, whom Mr. Way declined to identify, purchased rights to market products under the Clauss name along with certain other assets. In recent years, Clauss made industrial scissors. The firm was founded in Elyria, Ohio in 1877, and moved to Fremont a decade later.