About Us

ABOUT FOLEY BELSAW

In the business of putting people in business since 1926, the Foley-Belsaw Company has always been in the business of helping people start their own business and become successful.

In the early days, the Belsaw Company from Kansas City, Missouri manufactured sawmills and sharpening equipment. They soon offered in-house training to teach their customers how to use this equipment. This evolved over time into correspondence courses in a wide variety of subjects, everything from Air Conditioning to Woodworking. This was a time when there were very few vocational schools available, especially for people in rural areas. About the same time, Belsaw's competition, the Foley Company from Minneapolis, Minnesota, was also manufacturing a wide range of sharpening equipment, housewares, small engine parts, woodworking tools, and even canteens and mess kits for the military and the Boy Scouts. The Foley Company had patents on the first automatic hand saw filer and a hand operated food processor called the Foley Food Mill. 

The two rival companies merged in 1985 to form The Foley-Belsaw Company. They expanded their business and began manufacturing industrial grinding equipment for the golf course industry. To this day, the Foley Company is the leader in that industry. The Foley-Belsaw Company continued their distance-learning courses, training hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Over time, the Locksmithing training program became the most popular course.  

In 2018, Foley Belsaw Locksmithing became its own company, focusing exclusively on locksmith training and the locksmith tool and supply business. The correspondence course became a hybrid online course, with the locks, tools, and supplies needed to get the hands-on experience that you just can't get from watching a video or reading a book.  Foley Belsaw continues to train locksmiths to start their own businesses and to work in institutions like universities, hospitals, and prisons. Times may change, but the name Foley-Belsaw will always be about helping other people succeed. 

Richard Cobian

Long-time employee, now owner of Foley-Belsaw Locksmithing