Five Generations of American-Made Performance

It All Started With a Shovel

In 1903, Henry Osmundson took a hard look at a common trenching shovel and created a tool that was stronger, tougher and easier to clear of mud. It was built with a solid-wood handle and a spade head forged from a single piece of metal and reinforced with three steel bars and two clean-out holes. This helped laborers work faster, with less effort. It was a simple idea, built the right way to eliminate weak points. And it set the standard for everything we’ve made since.

Transforming the Plowshare

When World War I pulled most men overseas, farms were left short on labor and long on work. To keep drain tiling moving, farmers abandoned hand spades and improvised early trenching tools. Second-generation owner W. Howard Osmundson saw the shift and responded with purpose. He developed plowshares designed to work faster, cut cleaner and meet the demands of a changing field. It was innovation driven by necessity, and a reminder that at Osmundson, our progress has always started with listening to the ground.

Necessity Drives a New Era of Progress

As tractors rapidly advanced during and after World War I, hand tools and animal power gave way to mechanized plows. By World War II, new technologies in the 1940s transformed American farming, allowing producers to cover more ground, work faster and meet the growing demands of a nation at war while supporting the global food effort. Mechanization increased output while reducing labor needs, reshaped how fields were worked and introduced new challenges around soil health and sustainability. Through it all, progress wasn’t optional — it was necessary.

Improved Speed and Efficiency With Disc Blades

By the 1970s, farming entered a new era of scale. Global demand surged, operations expanded, and fencerow-to-fencerow planting became the norm. Producers needed equipment that could cover more ground, faster. And new practices, like no-till, demanded smarter, more specialized tools. Change was happening fast. The next defining chapter took shape under third-generation leadership with Don and Ruie (Osmundson) Bruce. In 1972, Osmundson met it head-on with our first disc blades. This marked a pivotal shift from general tools to high-performance wear parts for modern equipment and farming systems. They were built for farmers to till wider passes at higher speeds with greater efficiency.

Building on Our Legacy of Innovation

During this era, Osmundson expanded our technical capabilities and doubled down on engineering-led product development, laying the groundwork for innovation at scale. Fourth-generation owner Doug Bruce carried that foundation forward. His patented designs helped set new standards for disc blades and wear components. These first-to-market innovations delivered longer life, more consistent performance and lower total cost of ownership — earning trust from OEMs, distributors and end users alike. Many of those designs continue to shape the industry today.

From Perry, Iowa, to the World

Under the leadership of fifth-generation owner Heather Bruce, Osmundson has expanded our reach far beyond the field. Building on deep expertise in steel selection, forming, and heat treatment, we developed a global manufacturing footprint and deliberately diversified into industries where wear is constant and failure isn’t an option. 

Today, Osmundson products perform in some of the most demanding environments in the world, including:

• Agriculture: disc blades and soil-engagement components
• Forestry: mulcher knives and cutting tools built for high-impact, abrasive use
• Construction: grader blades and cutting edges
• Mining and reclamation: wear parts engineered for severe conditions
• Landfill compaction: blades designed for impact, contamination and longevity

Across every market, we stay focused on one thing: engineering durable, high-performing solutions that keep equipment running and deliver value over the long haul.