F.L. Grobet founded Grobet Frères in 1812 in Vallorbe, Switzerland. He was the first to bring mass production techniques to the manufacture of Swiss precision files. In 1836, he designed and built the first file cutting machine to improve the accuracy of the files being made by his company. Today, the company offers more than 1000 types, sizes and cuts.
Interestingly, the American side of the firm uses a different logo, which says something about cultural values:
Found your page while updating our website about the history of Grobet-Vallorbe. What you have noted, regarding the change in logo is a product of Grobet and Vallorbe operating as distinct companies. Since their origin in 1899 Grobet (Grobet File Company of America Inc., AKA: “Grobet USA”) has been the distributor in the United Sates of Vallorbe (Usines Métallurgiques de Vallorbe) files. Vallorbe, to this day, is still the only manufacturer of Swiss-Made files and rifflers and amazingly enough still operate in the same location as they did when they opened (Vallorbe, Switzerland). January 31st, 2015 these two entities finally parted ways. Interestingly enough the rabbit logo you have added above that reads "Grobet-Swiss" with the rabbit logo actually belongs to Vallorbe. Grobet now sources their “Swiss Pattern Files” from Italy, but will likely never drop the “Swiss” branding as it is iconic in the industry. Some interesting history of two companies that have had an intertwined history since their inception.
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