Visit to American Comb

Here's Gene Megowan with Frank Bachrach of American Comb standing proudly under an American flag. This was our second tour of the factory in Paterson, NJ. American Comb makes the Coil Comb that is such a popular item for making twists and coils in overcurly hair. Frank and his son Dan are becoming innovators in their field and showing American ingenuity. Unfortunately we couldn't show more details of their work (company secrets and all) but we were very impressed. We have always been impressed with the quality of the coil comb as have the hundreds of stylists who use it and it's been a great relationship we share with this super family business.

Born in the USA

Some things are still made in America. We saw that first hand when we were granted a tour of the Oster Plant in McMinnville, TN. The logistics were worked out in the spring through Casper Kiser, the plant superintendent of Oster. Gene and I have known Casper since 1997 when he was with Arius Eickert in Fremont, OH. We were delighted when we heard he was in charge of the shear production at the Oster plant facility. Frank Davis, Ed Wozniak and our Bonika staff, Harry, Jay, Mystie, Gene and I along with a handful wives were able to see the entire facility. This was made even more exciting since tours are rare and we had never seen photos of their operation since photography and videography are strictly forbidden.

What did we see? We saw skilled, efficient friendly Tennesseans each with decades of experience making shears and clippers. Stanley Gross, the business team leader of the blades department proudly gave us a tour of the clipper production area. The facility was enormous and all the Oster clippers are made right there with the exception of the screws and some of the newer small trimmers. The housing and parts were created from raw materials to the final product. We watched heat treat process and cryogenic freezing process of the clipper blades and individually hand sharpened, assembled and tested. Modern machines wound copper wire for the motors and lasers etched the name on each blade.

What did we learn? The comb or upper blade of the Oster clipper is ground flat and the lower blade or cutter is ground hollow at an incline angle on the plate that is a proprietary secret. We also learned innovations are coming based on feedback from the customers and clipper repair folks.

We ended our tour in the area of my interest, shears. Since Oster purchased Arius Eickert a few years back the scissor factory there went through a lot of changes and innovations since they were in Ohio. Now, only the finishing operation, the part that makes the shears cut is made in the factory. We were told the shears are coming in semi-finished from Asia (none from Pakistan). In other words, the 440C shears come with handles attached and polished before they reach the states. The hone, hollow and finishing is completed there in Tennessee. That means the part that actually does the cutting is in fact made in the US.

Although we were not allowed to see the actual clamping mechanism we had a general demonstration on how the hollow is put in the inside of the blade and how the so called “twist” is formed. I was impressed with the small size of the wheel (about 3” diameter), which is much smaller than those I’ve seen in other factories. The deeper hollow makes the ride or hone line easier to create and for us sharpeners to maintain. The initial convex shape was created free hand on a large flathone and the final edge precisely ground using a modified clamp on three smaller 6” stone flathones using progressively finer and finer grit. Final alignment tweaking was done with a brass bending block rather than hammers. Between each step of the operation, an inspector tests every shear before in proceeds to the next step on the production line.

Our observation of the shear making process impressed on us the importance of the hollow and the hone as well the skills and abilities of the scissor workers. Casper will be giving a more in-depth understanding of the process when he speaks at the Sharpeners Jam the last week-end of July in Atlanta.

Northeast Sharp N Shop Report

The Sharp N Shop in North Bergen became a combo meet n greet for sharpeners and a training.l Here is Ed Wozniak of Ultimate Edge, Chapel Hill, NC with a private training for three new sharpeners while we (Gene and Bonnie) conducted the Sharp N Shop in the meeting room downstairs. Like usual, everyone came and went throughout the day. Each had a specific thing they wanted to see, learn or buy and conducted their business, chatted with whoever was there and went their way. It's like a fluid open house and makes it easy for everyone to get complete undivided attention. I was really fascinated by Mr. Lee of Long Island who is an accomplished nipper sharpener and was wanting to modernize and update his equipment. I took some photos of his current sharpening equipment which he had made himself and installed in his mini van.

Big Joe Caladorci (I think I misspelled his last name) came by and Gene insisted I take his photo next to Joe so he would look small.

See all the photos here http://picasaweb.google.com/bonika/NortheastSharpNShop2009?feat=directlink

Kuda - San Francisco

Gene and his brother Harry are at the Kuda Certification in San Francisco this week-end. Harry is supposed to be taking photos for me to post. I will also let you know who certified on Bonika Shears and became eligible to be on the Find-a-Sharpener look-up.

I have had a lot of training lately and will have a training tomorrow. The rest of the week will be crazy since we having new carpet installed. It is time we got some commercial grade carpet for the extra foot traffic we get since our residence became a business location. We had a new roof put on a few weeks ago. I think we will wait until Tim Lau comes to Georgia again and let him do any new landscaping since he enjoys the heat so much.

Jay, my son-in-law and local sharpener will travel to Chicago this week along with Carissa (our office assistant) and Chuck and Teresa Bigalow. They have a booth at the America's Beauty Show. We wish them luck. They will miss out on the carpet installation. I don't know why Mystie timed our new carpet for the week the crew was gone.

Birthday Time at Bonika

Three birthdays. Mystie our office manager was Friday. The big 30! We celebrated with cake. Unfortunately Mystie went home sick that day, but there's some in the refrigerator for her to eat today.

Friday is Gene Megowan's birthday our sales manager. I won't say how old, but Mystie is his daughter, so he must be over 39 by now! Carissa Roper baked Mystie's cake and will be baking Gene's cake on Friday. However on the 15th it's Carissa's birthday. Who will bake her cake?

Brooke began crawling on all fours today so there are lots of things to celebrate at the office this week. This time of year is fun when things slow down before the hectic season begins in late January.

I've got to upload the business / family thanksgiving dinner photos taken at the Dillard House. There would have been 5 sharpeners at the dinner table, but Jay our local sharpener and son-in-law missed out because he was sick. He was so generous afterwards, he gave his virus to Mystie on her birthday. Nice husband!

Susannah, my oldest granddaughter wants to learn to sharpen, but I told her she had to be 5 years old. She has 2 years to go yet.