History of hand tools

Companies could manufacture tools much faster and in much higher volumes. Today, tools are more varied and advanced than ever before. Skip to main content. Enter your keywords. Contact Us. View Our Most Popular Products. Products New Products. Where to Buy Distributor Locator.

Media Center Blog. Powering America's Passion. Klein A to Z. It was a simple flat metal blade that was time-consuming and painful to use. It remained flat but some models had scalloped edges. In the s, screws gained popularity and the screwdriver was mass-produced. While the same design is used today, the long and flat metal or steel part of the screwdriver is thicker in diameter to add strength to the tool.

Modern screwdrivers are always equipped with steel or wooden handles. The chisel is a hand tool that dates back to BC. The original chisel was made of flint and manipulated so that it offered a thin, sharp blade at one end.

To use this hand tool, the user first wedged the chisel into an area he wanted to chip away at. Then, he grabbed a heavy rock and hit the back end of the chisel, driving force into the area. Chisels are used to shave, chip, and reshape wood, metal, stone, or other solid materials. In modern uses, chisels are usually accompanied by hammers or rubber mallets to drive force. Chisels are now made from steel and some may be equipped with a steel or wooden handle.

These tools come in a variety of sizes, thicknesses, and weights, depending on their use. It was a blade with teeth that were cast from smelted copper or bronze. Planned improvements include a more mobile-friendly layout, better indexing, and of course lots more tools. The old Comcast pages are now gone, and we would like to ask our readers to update any bookmarks or links that refer to the old Comcast address.

If you maintain web pages that refer to this site, please make sure that your links point to our new address. We've taken advantage of the move to dust off our pages a bit -- fixing broken links and other bit-rot -- as well as adding a few minor updates. The new site will allow us to do some things that are not feasible with static pages, such as online surveys and generated pages. We hope to add some new features and content as time permits. Warning: Your browser has Javascript disabled.

Some features of this site require Javascript. Armstrong Bros. Bethlehem Spark Plug Co. Simplex Wrench Company Smith, H. Welcome to Alloy Artifacts! The Quotidian Artifact. More Website Maintenance Mystery Solved.. Tracking Alloy Usage April 23, Website Maintenance April 5, Happy th Birthday! Responsive Design Changes Complete! Responsive Design Changes Underway Noteworthy Events for Although we usually don't mention the coming of a new calendar year, brings several events that should be of interest to our readers.

A New Look for the Home Page We've given our home page a long-overdue update, with an expanded slide show of sample photos. Breaking News! Best Wishes for the New Year! Please Update Your Links! Starrett to "Briefly Noted" section. An independent company would normally not want to rely too heavily on one retailer, so given the wide range of products offered, there should be numerous advertisements and announcements for Fulton products in magazines and trade publications.

Many such publications are now searchable online as part of the "Google Books" effort, but an extensive search turned up no apparent "Fulton Tool" entity that could account for the known range of products. In fact, the only catalog other than Sears known to list Fulton tools is a publication from the United Hardware and Tool Manufacturing Company, which shows an extensive selection of Fulton tools such as wood planes. When we first found this catalog, we attributed Fulton as the "house brand" for United Hardware, but more recent information has identified United Hardware as a manufacturer's agent for the export market.

In light of this new information, the listings for Fulton tools in the United Hardware catalog can be interpreted as an effort by Sears to develop export markets for its tool items.

In the figures below we'll show some examples of Fulton tools of probable pre-Craftsman origin, and where possible will identify the manufacturer. Examples of the continuing use of the Fulton brand in the post-Craftsman era can be found in a section on Later Fulton Tools. Currently many of the known examples of Fulton open-end wrenches are marked with an "CI" code, a code also found on many Craftsman wrenches. This strongly suggests that the maker of the Fulton open-end wrenches also produced Craftsman-branded tools.

The next several figures show examples of Fulton open-end or "S" wrenches with the "CI" code. The inset shows a forged-in "CI" code on the reverse side, a mark frequently seen on both Fulton and Craftsman tools. The shank is also marked with the fractional sizes forged into the front, with a "CI" manufacturer's code forged into the reverse. The shank is also marked with "8" and "Tool Steel" forged into the front, with "8" and "Drop Forged" forged into the reverse.

The overall length is 8. The head thickness was measured at 0. The markings and construction of this wrench suggest that the maker is likely the Diamond Calk Horseshoe Company. Diamond was active as a contract maker of adjustable wrenches from the s onward, and their production of this era was marked with "Tool Steel" and "Drop Forged".

An example of a similar wrench can be seen as the Diamond 8 Inch Adjustable Wrench. Made in U. The overall length is The finish is plain steel. Sears was probably supplying socket sets for automotive service by or even earlier. By this time the automobile market was growing rapidly and the socket sets produced by Bay State, Mossberg, and others were regarded as effective even essential tools for automotive maintenance.

The scan in Fig. This set is easily identifiable as a Bay State No. Within a few years the Frank Mossberg Company had become the prime supplier of socket sets for Sears, as a Justice Tires catalog lists several sets recognizable as Mossberg production, as well as ratchets, tools, and individual sockets.

We also have Justice Tires catalogs from , , , and The catalog has a listing and illustration for the "Aristocrat No. A somewhat later Justice Tire catalog from lists several socket sets identifiable as Mossberg production, plus a set that appears to be a Packer Auto Specialty "Ray" socket set. The illustration for the "Aristocrat No.

The sockets in the illustration are clearly marked with the Mossberg M-Diamond logo. A second set is called the "Universal Socket Wrench Set", and the illustration shows a large wooden box holding the sockets and drive tools, with a lift-out tray to hold open-end wrenches, pliers and other tools. The distinctive appearance clearly identifies this as the Mossberg No.

In addition to the familiar pressed-steel socket sets, the early Sears catalogs also offered other types of socket tools, such as the socket sets of malleable iron made by the Chicago Manufacturing and Distributing Company. With the thousands of artifacts at Alloy Artifacts it's always difficult to pick a favorite, but this next set would certainly be high on the list.

It offers both an interesting and innovative design with historical importance as our earliest documented example of a socket set sold by Sears Roebuck. The set is labelled with a placard inside the top lid printed with the text "Sears, Roebuck Autokit No. The "Autokit" name and distinctive rotating head ratchet immediately identifies the set as a Bay State No. The sockets are arranged from smallest to largest beginning left to right with the fourth socket in the bottom row, continuing left to right in the middle row, then continuing right to left in the top row.

Currently our earliest catalog reference for this set is from a Sears "Automobile Supplies" catalog, where an illustration and description of the set appears on page 99 under the heading "Aristocrat No. This socket set can be identified as production by Mossberg by the illustration and contents. In later catalogs the illustration for this set shows the sockets spilled in front of the box, with the Mossberg M-Diamond logo visible on the sockets.

This set can be easily identified as a Mossberg No. The set is functionally identical to the examples shown in our Mossberg article, but is illustrated in a fiberboard case instead of the wooden box or leather cases used for earlier sets.

The catalog page with the Aristocrat socket sets also included other socket-related tools. Tools available separately included the Mossberg No. These items were not identified as the Mossberg brand in the text, but the illustrations for the sockets clearly show the M-Diamond logo. One of the more significant listings in the Justice Tires catalog is a table offering individual Mossberg hex and square pressed-steel sockets, as this next example shows.

Note that each socket size and type is listed with its own catalog number, and that all sizes carry the same 15 cent price. Although the text doesn't mention the name Mossberg, the illustration clearly shows the Mossberg M-Diamond trademark on the sockets. This catalog listing goes a long way in explaining why old pressed-steel socket sets of any brand frequently include Mossberg replacement sockets. Sears continued to offer Mossberg socket sets at least into the mid s.

This next figure shows a listing for the Aristocrat No. The illustration is a little different from the earlier example, as a number of the sockets are displayed lying in front of the box, and a careful look shows that several sockets are marked with the Mossberg M-Diamond logo.

Some of our readers may recognize this as the infamous W. Mystery Ratchet. The illustration shows a set of seven sockets in a box, with a ratchet handle, universal, and extension displayed in front. The distinctive design of the tools allows the maker to be identified as the Chicago Manufacturing and Distributing Company, and the illustrated set is very similar to the Chicago Manufacturing No. Note in particular that the illustration shows the "A1" model number on the ratchet handle and the "A25" model on the extension.

The socket sizes in the catalog listing differ somewhat from the sizes in the No. The Chicago Manufacturing and Distributing Company was notable for making sockets and drive tools of malleable iron, a less common construction method at a time when pressed-steel sockets were the dominant technology.

The Sears catalogs offered socket sets by Chicago Manufacturing from or earlier until at least the mid s. By the late s Sears was offering socket sets under a number of brands, including Duro-Bilt, Hinsdale, Merit, and others. We have several examples of pre-Craftsman socket sets, from Duro Metal Products, Hinsdale, and other makers, and are currently preparing them for display.

The set consists of a No. The No. This ratchet is a familiar tool and further information can be found in the section for the Duro Ratchet.

The pending status for the ratchet and L-T handle places the manufacturing date for the set in the range The sockets are all stamped with the fractional size, and most are marked with a stylized "D" referred to as the Duro D-Trapezoid logo, although the "D" marking has been omitted on at least one socket. The Sears set includes the same drive tools with 14 hex sockets and a screwdriver socket, and the listing even mentions the green metal box.

The sheath is stamped "Duro Metal Products Co. The pending status refers to patent 1,, , filed by E. Peterson et al in and issued in The sheath can be placed either over the short end of the bar to form a Tee-handle, as in the photograph here, or placed on the long end of the bar as a grip and extender. The sheath can be completely removed from the bar if not needed.

The sockets are stamped with the Duro D-Trapezoid logo on each side of the fractional size, except that the 1 inch socket has only one "D" logo. The sockets have a band of cross-hatched knurling at the service end, with the knurling coarse enough to assist with turning a nut by hand. The and Sears catalogs offer a number of "DuroBilt" brand socket sets, and the tools in the illustrations closely resemble the sets from Duro Metal Products and Indestro Manufacturing.

See our article on Duro and Indestro for more information on these important companies. Although these Duro-Bilt sets are now seldom found, we have acquired two examples of the sets and can confirm that Duro Metal Products was the manufacturer.