Note: The Icon acquired a manuscript titled “A Brief History of Bluffton’s Industrial Developments.” This publication was prepared by the classes in Marketing and Small Business Administration from Bluffton College, under the director of Dr. Howard Raid. Publication date is May 1959. We’ve updated some current addresses so viewers may identify location.
The follow is an account of the origins of the Bluffton Slaw Cutter Company, which is now owned by Bill Selhlorst. The company is in its 101st year and is located in the building where it was housed for most of its time in business.
Fett and Kimmel
Rapid Slaw Cutters have carried the name Bluffton into kitchens throughout the nation.
These cutters were designed and manufactured by a Bluffton inventive genius. The cutters were and still are guaranteed to remain sharp for 10 years. They are still sold in leading department stores across the nation.
This industry dates back to soon after that turn of the century when gravity cream separators flourished here. John Fett and a Mr. Arras were partners in the manufacturing of gravity cream separator that bore Arras’ name and was invented by him.
Late Arras sold out to Will Augsburger and production expanded, which at one time employed 15 men. Arras separators were sold all over the world.
John Fett owned and operated a hardware store with a metal shop in the rear. Sam Kimmel had a watch repair business located in the Fett store. After the centrifugal separator replaced the gravity types these two aggressive men began looking for a product that the could develop and sell.
Their first venture was a pencil holder gadget that was made of a wire. This failed to develop and after about a year of no success they decided to concentrate on a new line.
It was in 1915 that they got the idea of making a quality slaw cutter. Previously the Fett Hardware had handled a quality cutter made by a Mishawaka, Indiana, man and that was probably the source of their idea.
So, manufacture of the Rapid Slaw Cutter was started in the back room of the hardware store, where the first cream separators had been made. Later they moved to the building on North Main Street where the separator plant was previously located.
About 1918 the sons of John Fett and Sam Kimmel went into the business as employees. Leslie Kimmel was in charge of production and Clair Fett, who is head of the industry today, was in charge of the office and sales
Knives on the Rapid Cutter are hammered sharp and tempered to retain their cutting edge for 10 years, a feature that is almost exclusive in slaw cutters today.
During the first few years, the knives were sharpened by hammering them with a ball penne hammer. Later Sam Kimmel designed and built a machine to hammer them sharp. He also invented an automatic machine to form the handles, and Leslie Kimmel later worked out a multiple die, making it possible to trim and finished all the knives on a cutter in one operation.
With the completion of the automatic machinery to handle the more intricate phase of cutter manufacture, the little Bluffton company completed the transition to mass production techniques and soon became a leader in the field.
During all this time, direction of sales continued under Clair B. Fett who is the only remaining member of the four men who made the industry an outstanding Bluffton business.
Today’s products include a plain cutter, the same cutter with a safety guard, a fine shredder and a medium shredder. The last consists of all cutter and shredders with a glass dish that attached to the cutters.
A flourishing sideline of the company, which for a time eclipsed even the slaw cutter operation, was the manufacture of radio condensers beginning in 1921, when radio receives were beginning to be marketed on a wide scale for use in homes.
Leslie Kimmel, who was interested in radio, designed the variable condenser when he was unable to find one, which answered his requirements. The company began to manufacture and was so successful that 40 people were employed.
In the condenser manufacturing operations, Fett and Kimmel used straight-line production techniques, developed by them at a time when that form of manufacturing assembly was in its infancy so far as national industrial operations were concerned.
The condenser business later passed into history, but the Slaw Cutter Co. continued as a stable industry and continues today to make the best cutter on the market. The largest order that the company ever had was in 1942 when the Jewel Tea Co., bought two railroad carloads.
Interview: J. Augspurger
