Early Beach Industries Hand Box?

Early Beach Industries Hand Box? Nope! Union Steel!

Last week I acquired an older, un-labelled hand box of Canadian manufacture from a fellow local GJ member (ID yourself if you wish!) primarily because I wanted to try to determine who made the thing.

Yesterday it had a good cleaning to remove the decades of grime and a few judicious smacks with a ball peen to correct a couple of dings...





It has obviously seen a lot of use & is quite battle-scarred, but it remains in good condition and the gauge of the metal seems possibly to be slightly heavier than normally encountered on small hand boxes of this size.

The assumption that it is Canadian-made is based on the hardware. The drawbolts are marked "Globe - Kitchener, ONT":







Surprisingly, this company - Globe Stamping - is still in existence and continues to offer toolbox hardware. I have emailed them to ask if Beach Industries was a client and if some long-time employee recognizes this box as a Beach product as I suspect it is. I await their reply, but I figured I'd put this out there for other Beach aficionados; the more eyes, the better!

This box has nice corners - something seldom seen anymore (but still offered by Globe):





My working theory is that the mystery box is an earlier example of the B19 model familiar to Beach fans that was also marketed under other brands like Craftsman here in Canada:







Notice the similarity in handle design and the lock hasp:











The colour is also very close to lilredex's Gray-badged, Beach-made vintage chest & cabinet combo:





What do y'all think? Comments? Observations?

It is amazing how much better built the older ones are. Like the extra corner covers.

beerdog said:

It is amazing how much better built the older ones are. Like the extra corner covers.

Click to expand...

form and function, rare these days to have both in one box...

OK, this mystery has been solved thanks to the guys over at the GG...

It is, in fact, a Union box. Rob posted a scan of the 1952 Canadian Tire catalogue:





My box is a match for #3 - the "No. A 834" as the dimensions are the same.


Then Chuck recognized the design and the "Super Steel" description as the work of the Union Steel Chest Corporation of Le Roy, NY:









And in case there was any remaining doubt, here is the tote tray from mine:

good find

Teamwork Lorne,
We do it well

Chuck

Nice research! I wish I could have found a use for it, but I'm glad it went to a good home. So the hardware was made in Kitchener, but the box in NY state? That's interesting. This is a very heavy box. Awhile back I sold a similar size one that was really beat up. It had a handle that was 1/8" rod and the metal was a much thinner gauge. Junk compared to this one!

Gregg33 said:

So the hardware was made in Kitchener, but the box in NY state? That's interesting.

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That seems to be the case (no pun intended).

I'm not aware of Union ever producing in Canada. I don't think there can be any question that Union was the manufacturer.

We need to wait until someone shows up with a labelled Union box of the same era (I think Chuck's might be slightly older given the different handle on his) with the same Globe drawbolts...