I believe I have likely figured out what "HTD" means, and in the process came to see how National Hand Tool came to purchase the tool assets of Litton Industries...
About 4-6 weeks ago, I bought a socket at the ReStore that had the Litton/American Forge logo of the molten steel bucket with the two stars. Unfamiliar with the logo, I found a thread that identified the logo, but also saw this post in the thread that includes an image of a Taiwanese-made Litton set 2200 in which it appears that HTD is marked on one of the sockets:
www.garagejournal.com
Thankfully, after seeing this, there happened to be a Taiwanese Litton set available, a set no. 2202 that I purchased (plastic insert set aside for clarity of view):
It appears that this set was manufactured in Taiwan for Litton by Ruey Yang/National Hand Tool/Related Companies, as the sockets and drive tools have the characteristic "TAIWAN RY"/"TAIWAN Y" markings.
I have not observed "HTD" on any tools National Hand Tool/Affiliates produced for themselves or on any online pictures of sets that they did contract production for besides for Litton. I am theorizing that HTD is what Litton had stamped on their import tools. As the owner of Husky, Blackhawk, New Britain, etc. these were grouped under Litton's "Hand Tools Division". It seems that in order to offer import Taiwanese socket sets and Japanese wrenches but not affecting the "made in USA" expectations of the brands that comprised the division, the tools were sold under the Litton name, having been stamped "HTD" to show they were made for the Hand Tools Division of Litton.
This is outside the scope of this thread as this wrench was made by AIGO in Japan (as shown by the prescence of the distinctive 2 line forging codes AIGO used) but it shows evidence indicating HTD was marked on multiple lines of tools and is not strictly for tools made by Ruey Yang/National (unfortunately I have not yet seen photos or read about a Japanese wrench set still in Litton packaging, but AIGO would have no reason to mark the wrench this way for themselves). It seems likely that these were imported by Litton as well, as I have not found anything tying any other company to tools marked "HTD":
It is informative to see evidence of a pre-existing relationship between Litton's Hand Tools Division and National Hand Tool/Ruey Yang. When Litton decided to sell their tool business, it appears that National Hand Tool, having made import socket sets for Litton in their asssociated Taiwan facilities, was in a good position to purchase the division's assets due to this existing association.
About 4-6 weeks ago, I bought a socket at the ReStore that had the Litton/American Forge logo of the molten steel bucket with the two stars. Unfamiliar with the logo, I found a thread that identified the logo, but also saw this post in the thread that includes an image of a Taiwanese-made Litton set 2200 in which it appears that HTD is marked on one of the sockets:
Recognize this tool logo? SOLVED: American Forge by Litton
I've looked everywhere, even tried a Google image search, nada. Thanks in advance for any help in identifying this logo.
www.garagejournal.com
Thankfully, after seeing this, there happened to be a Taiwanese Litton set available, a set no. 2202 that I purchased (plastic insert set aside for clarity of view):
It appears that this set was manufactured in Taiwan for Litton by Ruey Yang/National Hand Tool/Related Companies, as the sockets and drive tools have the characteristic "TAIWAN RY"/"TAIWAN Y" markings.
I have not observed "HTD" on any tools National Hand Tool/Affiliates produced for themselves or on any online pictures of sets that they did contract production for besides for Litton. I am theorizing that HTD is what Litton had stamped on their import tools. As the owner of Husky, Blackhawk, New Britain, etc. these were grouped under Litton's "Hand Tools Division". It seems that in order to offer import Taiwanese socket sets and Japanese wrenches but not affecting the "made in USA" expectations of the brands that comprised the division, the tools were sold under the Litton name, having been stamped "HTD" to show they were made for the Hand Tools Division of Litton.
This is outside the scope of this thread as this wrench was made by AIGO in Japan (as shown by the prescence of the distinctive 2 line forging codes AIGO used) but it shows evidence indicating HTD was marked on multiple lines of tools and is not strictly for tools made by Ruey Yang/National (unfortunately I have not yet seen photos or read about a Japanese wrench set still in Litton packaging, but AIGO would have no reason to mark the wrench this way for themselves). It seems likely that these were imported by Litton as well, as I have not found anything tying any other company to tools marked "HTD":
It is informative to see evidence of a pre-existing relationship between Litton's Hand Tools Division and National Hand Tool/Ruey Yang. When Litton decided to sell their tool business, it appears that National Hand Tool, having made import socket sets for Litton in their asssociated Taiwan facilities, was in a good position to purchase the division's assets due to this existing association.
