Homeric was started by a German, Wilhelm Morsbach, who had been born on 8 July 1895.  He had worked in the scissors trade in Germany, but left due to political changes.  By 1931, he had established Steelblank Co in Sheffield for manufacturing safety-razor blade blanks.  In 1932, Morsbach registered Steel Blanks Ltd, with £500 capital; and in the following year established Homeric Cutlery Co Ltd (capital £100).  Homeric was launched to manufacture scissors, using the latest German mass production methods for stamping scissors from steel wire.  In 1934, the office was in Mazda Buildings, Campo Lane.  By the late 1930s, Homeric was in Reed Street.  Morsbach was interned during the War, but his workers kept the factory in production.  

In 1949, the company moved into an old dairy building in Chambers Lane, Grimesthorpe (once used by the car maker Durham Churchill).  International Cutler (February 1952) featured the firm, which employed about 50-60 workers (mostly girls and women).  The magazine described the stamping room, which had 130-200 ton presses to process coils of steel wire: ‘Under the impact of the great presses the wire is blanked out into blades, either left or right, and they are so arranged in the dies that after being under the press the blades are already provided with a cutting edge, which only needs the final touch to make it a really sharp instrument’.  Output approached 720 dozen scissors per day.  

Morsbach’s wife – Clara Louisa Lydia – died in Sheffield in 1959, leaving £2,491.  He married Violet Hewitt in 1960.  Wilhelm died on 6 June 1968 at Northrepps, Norfolk, aged 72.  In 1990, Homeric was bought by Acme United Corporation (USA) for $748,000 (£400,000) and merged into another Acme acquisition in Sheffield – Surmanco.  Homeric was closed and its staff (now only about ten) was transferred to Surmanco.