Description
This American square point razor from the Clauss Cutlery Co of Fremont, Ohio has a carbon steel 5/8 blade and jimping to the lower tang and a plain spine. The tang has the “CLAUSS FREMONT O.” mark. The scales are made of faux tortoiseshell, I think that they are too thick to be real tortoiseshell, which tends to be thinner and more opaque. There are a couple of small areas on one side of the blade where there are pock marks of corrosion which has been polished out, but overall this is a very attractive razor in very good condition. We think the scales are of celluloid and would date this to the very early part of 20th Century.
“If you can remember Santa Claus, You can remember that Clauss CUTLERY IS the best” so said Mr. R.W. Van Hook, president of the Clauss Cutlery Company in 1920.
Clauss Cutlery is a cutlery brand owned by the Acme United Corporation since 2004. It was founded in 1877 by John and Henrie Clauss, two brothers of German heritage, in Elyria Ohio. The business moved to Fremont to be near an accessible and abundant supply of natural gas, which had recently been discovered and which was needed for the foundry used by the company.
On January 17, 1889, however, the plant was completely destroyed by fire, causing 125 employees to lose their jobs. However, in less than four months, Clauss had built a new plant and was back in full operation. The new four-story brick building at the corner of State Street and Sandusky Avenue was the largest shear factory in the world at that moment. Clauss also used this opportunity to change the company’s name to Clauss Shear Company.
In 1919, Clauss Shear merged with Henkel Company, also from Fremont, to create Henkel–Clauss Company. Henkel was founded in 1906 and manufactured nail files, knives, shears and razors. In 1954 the corporate name was changed to Clauss Cutlery Company to eliminate the confusion with the German cutlery firm J.A. Henkels. In 1967 Clauss was taken over by Alco Standard Corporation. Alco Standard, which later divested its manufacturing companies to create Alco Industries, integrated Clauss into its existing structure to manufacture tools. In May 2004, Acme United Corporation acquired the Clauss inventory, trademarks and brand names from Alco Industries for approximately $500,000. Clauss continued making razors into the 1950’s.
SHAVE READY – all our razors are individually prepared and supplied shave ready. For full details see our policy.
