This text is from the Goldenberg 1927 Tool Catalog edited by Jean-Cyrille Godefroy
Until the end of the 18th century, hand tools were produced by hand, most often by the workers themselves. Irons and cutting tools were produced by blacksmiths and edge-tool makers in towns and villages.The early 19th century saw the intensified production of good quality steel, and the rapidly evolving society of the time, with its predominantly rural character, generated enormous needs in the fields of construction and furniture, opening up a fabulous market for hand tools.
Gustave Goldenberg, a craftsman, manufactured bladed weapons with a small team of workers. He then understood that this market was declining and became convinced that the hand tool market had great potential.In 1835, he built his first factory in Dorlisheim, then in Zornhoff, near Saverne, in the Bas-Rhin. Growing demand quickly confirmed the merits of his reconversion, and additional factories were built on the same site, with three rivers providing the essential hydraulic power. Industrialization was in full swing and, around 1850, G. Goldenberg founded his first company, which he called “Goldenberg et Cie.” About twenty years later, another industrial site was established, this time in the Meuse, in Tronville en Barrois, where the “Manufacture française d’outils, formerly Goldenberg et Cie” was created. It expanded into the national market and that of the colonies, which were already numerous at the time. At the same time, and for export, the parent company of Zornhoff was also transformed into a public limited company under the name of “Manufacture Alsacienne d’outils-Zornhoff, formerly Goldenberg et Cie.” A merger of the two companies took place in 1924, giving rise to the “Anciens établissements Goldenberg et Cie.”
The more recent evolution of the Goldenberg house will be marked by agreements signed with “Peugeot hand tools” in the seventies, creating SIFCO, which will be absorbed by the British Stanley group in 1986, the Goldenberg trademark having always been retained.
Gustave Goldenberg began producing tools for agriculture and forestry, and later for basic craft tools. The first series of assembled tools—planes, ploughshares, etc.—were produced around 1893. By 1900, the range was almost complete.
Manufacturing was not very automated until the war of 1870. As was unfortunately later confirmed, military needs accelerated technological development and industrialization took off again. Thus, the production of forged, hand-cut files and rasps, which employed three hundred workers, was carried out from 1872, with the first forges and automatic cutters, later replaced by hot rolling mills, already inexorably reducing the workforce.
