More than a century ago, a group of entrepreneurs in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, set out with a goal: to meet the growing need of the emerging U.S. manufacturing industry, which needed an ever-increasing supply of grinding wheels to build and maintain machinery. Norton Company was therefore founded in 1885 to manufacture the first grinding wheel that could be precision made and mass-produced.

The company began to expand as the new bonded abrasives reached customers throughout the U.S. and Canada, focusing on both the grinding machine processes and the wheel portions of the business. In 1909, a new plant was built in Europe. Eight years later, Norton formed a joint venture in Asia and by 1919, the grinding machine company and the wheel company merged.

Norton weathered the tough times of the 1930s depression, and Norton's leaders developed a long-range plan for growth. A major step forward was taken in 1931 when Behr-Manning Corporation, a leader in the coated abrasive belts, sheets and discs industry, became a wholly owned subsidiary of Norton.