Anybody else into Harrold Tools?

[four.cycle]

^ I thought we had previously ascertained that the "Forged Steel USA" inside the triangle was Harrold?

 

[d42jeep]

I think we did. I just wish that they were marked with an obvious Harrold.
-Don

 

[bonneyman]

I know. Yell "Harrold" and see if it comes running1

 

[four.cycle]

sorry... I didn't even look before I posted that above.
@LesserSon 's post (#29) seems to define it.
it looks like they were using different markings over the course of years. there are examples (see post #14 and below) where they include "Harrold" in the triangle.
early advertising has "HJH" in a triangle, but I don't think that's been seen stamped on a tool.

 

[Leviton]

^ I thought we had previously ascertained that the "Forged Steel USA" inside the triangle was Harrold?

I think we did. I just wish that they were marked with an obvious Harrold.
-Don

That declaration should probably have an asterisk. In this thread: Pliers with "FORGED STEEL U.S.A." in depressed triangle we found a Forged Steel USA inside a triangle that was likely Harrold AND we found one that was definitely Herbrand.

 

[FullRaceMerc]

That declaration should probably have an asterisk. In this thread: Pliers with "FORGED STEEL U.S.A." in depressed triangle we found a Forged Steel USA inside a triangle that was likely Harrold AND we found one that was definitely Herbrand.

Twilight zone moment...My dad was Harold & my grandpa was Herb.

 

[four.cycle]

I just read through that entire thread you linked to and now I'm puzzled.
who was making what for who?

 

[MisterEd]

Harrold 15 Inch Prybar

 

[dangerRuss]

I just picked up a stubby wood handle screwdriver labeled Harrold's Non-Twist USA on the ferrule, is Harrold and Harrold's the same company?

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I don't normally collect Harrold tools, but I had never seen an adjustable crescent type wrench with their name on it before, so home this one came with me. Turns out @misterbill has one, too, (he showed his on the Garage Sale thread), and @Makattak81 posted a pair of them here upthread back in 2016. Although those have the grammatically correct apostrophe that mine lacks. It's not a sleek wrench! And, as I was saying on the Garage Sale thread, the teardrop hanging hole smacks of Barcalo and/or Lawson.

 

[MisterEd]

Posted this on Pliers, but it belongs here, too.

 

[Garage Full]

Got interested in Harrold tools for personal reasons. I have found three screwdrivers in 4 years of looking. Steel isn't bad, handles are decent. I know they also made pliers, but I've never come across one in the wild.

Here's some info on the company:http://wiki.vintagemachinery.org/CrescentHistory.ashx

Anybody else got Harrold tools they'd like to show us?

I’m currently restoring this Harrold screwdriver. I’ll try to show it when finished. It is pretty rusted. I mean was. ken

 

[bonneyman]

Thanks for that link and best of luck on the resto.

Are you going to replace that wood or try and save it?

 

[LesserSon]

Picked up a pair of dikes this morning at Jake’s Flea. Mostly, I see slipjoints and chain-nosed pliers.

 

[LesserSon]

Closer look after cleaning. Like @MisterEd’s dikes, mine has an accute cutter and an oblique anvil side. It has the same “H” grip pattern.
Mine does NOT have a stamped “forged steel usa” mark around the pivot, but it does have “made usa” forged inside the handles.

 

[LesserSon]

Left behind this pair of “Harrold USA” marked dikes today.

 

[GarageHobbyist]

I came across the set on the bottom. Looks like needle nose that someone modified into a round nose. I’m going to keep them and use them for bending copper.

 

[d42jeep]

Found these in the tool drawer In the hall closet.
-Don

 

[LesserSon]

I don’t recall posting these before. I was going through some wood-handled screwdrivers (looking for Bridgeport examples) and realized the ring of impressions on the ferules was the same, slanted rectangles. The regular-length screwdriver has “Harrold” on the ferule, but no “Non-Twist.” The stubby just has “H” above “Non-Twist” - other examples have “Harrold” spelled out.

 

[Leviton]

I found these 6-inch, flush rivet, long-nose pliers last weekend.
The only markings are on one side and say: FORGED-STEEL-USA-

I'm thinking these are probably Harrold made? I'd like to hear what others think?

 

[Mintgrun]

These pliers say FORGE STEEL inside the triangle, with a little H where a D might have been. This is the first time I've noticed the missing-D detail. Are there other FORGE STEEL marked tools out there?



The big H on the handle makes it clear who made them. The working-end is especially slim.



This stubby screwdriver barely had room for HARROLD U.S on the handle, leaving off the .A. . It's a tiny handle.

 

[nz44tool]

Private Lugnutz made the connection between this screwdriver of mine and LesserSon's pliers with a similar logo. Amazing.
We're both wondering if LS can date these items.

 

[LesserSon]

I can’t date Harrold tools. No catalogs on ITCL, no mention on AA.
Progress Is Fine raises some interesting points (they were a Ford supplier), but no help dating Harrold tools.
The rest of the internet yields few further clues.
Images of axes, pliers, screwdrivers.
Harvey Joseph Harrold 1878-1953.
Roy Virgil Harrold 1801-1967.
Father and son both buried in Columbiana OH.

 

[nz44tool]

I can’t date Harrold tools. No catalogs on ITCL, no mention on AA.
Progress Is Fine raises some interesting points (they were a Ford supplier), but no help dating Harrold tools.
The rest of the internet yields few further clues.
Images of axes, pliers, screwdrivers.
Harvey Joseph Harrold 1878-1953.
Roy Virgil Harrold 1801-1967.
Father and son both buried in Columbiana OH.

Thanks, LesserSon - I saw the Progress Is Fine article - interesting stuff, but as you say, not much nitty-gritty. It's surprising that there's so little on Harrold's. They were an important company, had a fairly long run, and made a lot of quite familiar tools.

 

[four.cycle]

^ There just isn't ANY information on them available. The only thing I've ever been able to find is that ad in post #44 of this thread.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

We're both wondering if LS can date these items.

I can’t date Harrold tools.

What I thought I had suggested (or meant to suggest) to "NZ" was far less explicit than "dating" them and made you seem far less the 'Oracle (or Oz or Carnack) of Harrold'. I am well aware of the paucity of historical information. I was not aware that none of you Harrold Hoarders had yet done any kind of coarse sequencing at least based on what sparse info there is in addition to more general characteristics in construction or finish etc common to all of industry.

The only HARROLD tool I own is a "HARROLDS" adjustable crescent-type wrench, certainly made of carbon steel, that I can fairly assuredly "date" to very early and certainly prior to the other dizzying array of counter-productive marketing markings they used, in my view, on a seemingly ubiquitous amount of "household" class pliers, etc, which all look like maybe prewar and postwar to me.

The only thing I've ever been able to find is that ad in post #44 of this thread.

I found a little more than that when researching my adjustable, but not really being a Harrold guy, I never posted it.

I'll just leave it here...

Google Books, Vol. VII, No. 1, (January 1917) Mill Supplies



This link is to a 1918 Engineering Directory on Google Books. It is organized like all trade directories (e.g., Iron Age, Chilton, etc) by type. If you're familiar with my approach to building catalogs where none exist (see Braunsdorf-Mueller thread), you can use this to essentially develop a catalog for Harrold for 1918 by parsing out a list of them being cited as a supplier by type. I don't have enough interest in Harrold to do that, but someone else could. It doesn't show the tools, of course. So, limited, value in that regard.

Maybe you could find more of them in the 20's and 30's etc.

I can report that they had one (1) small ($123,000) WWII contract, with the US Navy Bureau of Supply, from late 1942 to early 1944, unhelpfully, for "Tools".

It helped to search by H.J.H. and Harrold Tool. But not much.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I HATE when you guys talk me into doing research on a mfgr I have no affinity for!

This link to a 1929 HoR W&M Committee Tariff Adjustments document on Google Books was useful.

It includes these blurbs showing that Harrold Too Co was making "plain screw drivers" with 3 to 12 inch blades in 1929




...with this paragraph as a general description...

 

[MisterEd]

I HATE when you guys talk me into doing research

Talk is cheap so it makes cents to do it.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

I HATE when you guys talk me into doing research on a mfgr I have no affinity for!

But your so good at it!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

But you're so good at it!

Snerk. No skill involved - just time and typing!

// BREAK //

The government definitely liked them for screwdrivers!

I reported the 1942-44 US Navy contract in post #67. Here they are (being recorded under their prior name...) making $11,000 worth of screwdrivers for Agency "12" (which is US Navy Bureau of Ships) in November 1952.




And here they are still selling screwdrivers to DSA in 1963.

 

[nz44tool]

I HATE when you guys talk me into doing research on a mfgr I have no affinity for!

...kind of a badge of respect for your research skills, me thinks
But..guess what showed up in my pile of junkie pliers? Yep, right under my nose!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

But..guess what showed up in my pile of junkie pliers? Yep, right under my nose!

Now you're the only guy in the universe with TWO Harrold tools with the <-H-> logo!

// BREAK //

This 1939 Consumers' Research Bulletin didn't think too highly of Harrold's adjustable wrenches. (I'm sure the Diamond fans won't be happy to see them rated "Intermediate" while the normally downtrodden and besieged Dunlap fans will get a sense of redemption in the "Recommended" category! )

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Waaaay past my collecting interest window, but looks like Harrold got conglomoed by Budd in 1977.

 

[nz44tool]

Now you're the only guy in the universe with TWO Harrold tools with the <-H-> logo!

// BREAK //

This 1939 Consumers' Research Bulletin didn't think too highly of Harrold's adjustable wrenches. (I'm sure the Diamond fans won't be happy to see them rated "Intermediate" while the normally downtrodden and besieged Dunlap fans will get a sense of redemption in the "Recommended" category! )

So it seems - I wonder if that gets me any perks or discounts, if only in this solar system.
Also - suddenly the internet is filled with searches for "Dunlap adjustable wrenches for sale near me"...

 

[four.cycle]

^ the Dunlap was probably made by J.P. Danielson - I sent one down to Don. Nice unit.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

^ the Dunlap was probably made by J.P. Danielson - I sent one down to Don. Nice unit.

For sure. I have a few in multiple sizes hanging off my JPD/JPD-made adjustables rack. (I was more or less joking about the general rodneydangerfielding of Dunlap, in general.)

// BREAK //

Here's the original TM they apparently shortened later and a pretty good list of the tools they were making at that time.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Here's what I mean by building a catalog from trade mag directories found in Google Books. Here is a link to the July 25, 1942 edition of Hardware Age. If you search inside the document on "Harrold" it will show you every instance of Harrold in the mag, listed with all the other suppliers - under each tool category. Harrold makes appearances (and therefore was manufacturing at that time...) the following:

Bars, Wrecking (p. 69)
Chisels, Cold (p. 153)
Openers, Crate (p. 409)
Pliers, Slip-Joint (p.451)
Punches, Center and ***** (p. 475)
Screwdrivers (p. 521)
Wrenches, Adjustable (p. 655)

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Here is the 1943 Hardware Retailer, also c/o Google Books.

Bars, Wrecking (p. 239)
Braces, Bits, Regular (p. 277)
Chisels, Carpenters (p. 334)
Chisels, Cold, Mechanics (p. 334)
Pliers, Slip-Joint, General Line (p. 564)
Screwdrivers, Regular, Wood Handle (p. 614)

 

[d42jeep]

^ the Dunlap was probably made by J.P. Danielson - I sent one down to Don. Nice unit.

This may have been a case of the Dunlap adjustable being superior to the Craftsman.
-Don

 

[four.cycle]

^ Wasn't that Dunlap I sent down to you a J.P. Danielson square gullet model? (like in your photo above)
I thought that was a far better unit than a lot of others (probably the crappiest being that 4-inch "Crescent" you and I both got suckered into.)

even better: the guy who bought that Crescent left feedback:
"Better in hand than in picture. Crescent 4 inch Adjustable Wrench U.S.A. made New NOS!"

Go figure.