“Aircraft spec. Inc” tool brand?

[Magnum440d100]

One of my favorite extendable magnets is marked “Aircraft spec inc, Lapeer MI, Made in USA, NO 927” It is engraved on the handle with my Grampa’s cousins first initial and last name, and what looks like an employee number?

It belonged to my late grandfathers cousin, then my grandfather when his cousin passed away. All I know of my Grampa’s cousin is that he owned quite a few bars in the Southern California area. I don’t know if he worked in the aircraft industry or not. I know my grandmother did. I wonder if she may have gotten this from her work and gave it to my Grampa’s cousin??? But why would it have HIS name and a number next to it?

Googling the name “Aircraft Spec Inc” yields only aeronautic facilities. I can’t find another one like this one.

So, was this a company, a specialty item (promotional?) or ????

It has saved my **** many times getting at fallen nuts/bolts.... I hope to keep it around for a VERY long time!

 

[ZRX61]

What part of so cal did they live?

 

[Magnum440d100]

What part of so cal did they live?

Los Angeles and Riverside counties

 

[Private Lugnutz]

The "Spec." is Specialties. Full name: Aircraft Specialties, Inc.

I have collected several of their spring-loaded small parts holders, retrievers, or picker-upper tools, which they branded "Mechanical Finger." I used one of them last year to make a trophy for the "2018 Garage Journal Picker of the Year", awarded to the top vote getter over in the 2018 Garage Sale thread. See pics.

I never did nail down when they started, exactly, but they do not appear in my WWII contracts books, and the earliest on-line reference I can find is 1951, in a snippet-only view of a Federal Manufacturer's Index. So, almost certainly a postwar start-up, in the runup to KW, the Cold War, and the burgeoning Industrial-Military Complex. Given the "Mechanical Fingers" tool and your magnet, the "Specialties" are apparently peripheral items.