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.
