EAST BUTLER — Luigi Sorichetti worked in the International Staple and Machine plant before he bought it a year ago.

But he's not from Butler County, and he's never worked a shift producing staples or wire for the company.

Instead, Sorichetti came to ISM in the 1970s to install machines he designed for an Italian wire machining firm.

In fact, as owner of what is now called North American Wire Co., he owns a machine he installed in East Butler more than 30 years ago.

"It still runs too," he said.

North American Wire is the company Sorichetti opened after buying the assets of the bankrupt ISM. ISM, which opened in 1938, decided in the 1970s to produce its own wire to be manufactured into staples, nails and other fasteners.

"Everything comes from wire," Sorichetti said. "Jewelry, staples, nails — its all wire."

After spending a career traveling the globe, working on equipment that takes metal and shapes it into different types of wire, Sorichetti found he was in the position to buy ISM's facility on East Butler Road.

"My company comes to me and says, 'Why don't you buy it?', and I did," he said.

North American Wire is ISM's former wire production plant, while ISMcontinues to make staples in the facility under its own management.

Sorichetti and his staff of 17 are working to clean up the wire operation, which has as many customers as it wants filling orders that go to Europe, Italy, the Ukraine and South America.

"I want to grow the company," Sorichetti said, adding he hopes to have as many as 35 employees in the next three to five months.

Making wire means stretching a 5.5 millimeter rod, as it is called, which comes as a coil from a steel mill, through a long machine, called dry drawing, pulling and cleaning the wire.

The metal, made up of different carbon contents depending on the order, Sorichetti explained, is pulled through dies with holes of various widths, gradually thinning the wire to the desired gauge.

During this process, the wire goes through several different machines, including a furnace, a pickling system and electroplating, which can cover the steel wire in zinc or copper for different end uses.

Sorichetti said workers must keep an eye on the solutions the wire goes through, making sure that coatings are to the specifications of North American's customers.

The area that is used as both a laboratory and a company kitchen-lunchroom was severely damaged in the 2004 floods, caused by the remnants of two hurricanes that stalled over the region.

"You can see how high the water came up," Sorichetti said, pointing to a mud line and warped paneling in the lab. Bottom cabinets have been scrubbed, but not really cleaned, and doors sit askew, too warped to close.

"I want to completely renovate this area, put in showers and a locker room for workers. I want them to have a clean place to sit and have a meal and to have a beautiful lab, like this once was," he said.

But the first step is to remove old machine parts and scraps that have been stored on top of the lab room for decades and organize them on new shelving.

Sorichetti stops to see how the work is progressing and praises the men for their hard work.

"It looks beautiful," he tells them.

"When I used to come here to install equipment, they had a school to teach the men how to speak Italian, as there was a large Italian community here and the management was mostly Italian," Sorichetti said.

"Now no one speaks Italian, but it is a special community, and we're glad to be here," he said.