It was purchased in 1867 by the Harmony Society, brought to Beaver Falls, and developed for mass production, to employ 300 people and to cover a two-acre site.

[1] Mason, inventor of an improved tang for iron-handled knives, patent 89059, was originally from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, a steel town.

[3] The Beaver Falls Courier (1875–1879)[4] confirmed that in 1866 Binns and Mason established the company, whose capital, it said, was then a million dollars.

There is represented the American eagle flapping its wings in triumph over the British lion, and the latter is struggling in the last agonies of death.

[6] On 30 March 1844 Mason left for America with his family, arriving in New York "pennyless (sic) and friendless" after a journey of 105 days.

The investment was insufficient,[13] so the Pittsburgh Cutlery Company was merged with the Harmony Society's new firm, which was based at Ambridge.

[1] In April 1867 the knife-making business was moved to a two-acre site at Beaver Falls, PA, in "the lower end of town, near the river,"[13] where 300 people were eventually employed (following another recruitment drive in Sheffield, England)[9] making it one of the largest companies of its day.

[nb 3][1] The majority of shares were purchased by the Harmony Society, and it became a joint-stock company with a capital stock of $400,000 in 1870, under the leadership of John Reeves.

At this point the largely English skilled workforce took the opportunity to initiate a labor dispute and strike for higher wages.

A further influence in this matter was the Methodist minister Reverend Dyer, a missionary who knew that the Chinese worked hard and did not drink.

[1] The Chinese workers resided in The Old Mansion House, built in 1875 with a cookhouse, dining room and sleeping quarters, at the corner of Third Street and Seventh Avenue.

[1][3] The contract for the Chinese workers was with San Francisco merchant Ah Chuck, who had the responsibility of returning their bodies to China should they die in American employ.

The Chinese were satisfactory workers; their appearance attracted tourists who in turn brought good custom to the factory.

[1] Some Chinese workers died after such attacks, and were buried at the far end of town in a specially dedicated cemetery, near Twenty-Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue on College Hill.

Although rumor had it that a mysterious benefactor paid for the removal of the bodies, which were exhumed and returned to China for traditional burial rites, another story suggests that a developer wanted to build homes on the land.

With the completion of the First transcontinental railroad in 1869, the Chinese began to move east, and potential employment at Beaver Falls made it one of their first eastern destinations.

The local controversy following the strike at the cutlery company took the notice of Pennsylvania General Assembly and Congress, in the context of the contemporary Chinese question debate about immigration.

[14] In 1890 the Champlin family purchased the knife-making equipment to start up their Cattaraugus Cutlery Company in Little Valley, New York.

Beaver Falls Historical Museum has a set of BFCC table knives with carved ivory handles and metal inlays, dating from the 1870s to 1880s.

[nb 4] The company also produced pearl-handled and wooden-handled tableware, and exhibited a pocketknife with 365 blades at the Centennial Exposition.

"[21]In 1875, the largest-known carving knife and fork were those made by Joseph Rodgers & Son of 6 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.

The set was made in celebration of the visit to Sheffield on 17 August of that year by Albert Edward, Prince of Wales.

"[nb 5][22] As a competitive response in 1876, Beaver Falls Cutlery Company made the "largest knife and fork in the world" of its time,[1] at the cost of $1,500.

[14] A small display of early tableware, razors and pocket knives made by the company is kept at the Beaver County Industrial Museum at Darlington, Pennsylvania, which also has library resources.

[1][23] The Beaver Falls Historical Society Museum, in the city's Carnegie library, houses a larger collection of artifacts associated with the Company.