c. 1920 National Plier Company Multi-Tool

[Private Lugnutz]

Found this today at the flea. The appealing, in-parallel, swooping shape of the handles caught my eye, and I thought at first they might've been lasting pincers or pliers, for the shoe trade, due to that little nubbin of a tack hammer, but the jaw shape is not right for that, the teeth are too sharp, and they have cutters near the pivot.




They are marked "NATIONAL PLIER CO., INC." / "BUFFALO, N.Y." / "PAT'D NOV. 19 1907"...



...which refers to 871,585.

They do not quite exactly match the drawing...



...or fit the multitudinous description, missing quite a few of the features/uses (pick, nail puller and screwdriver) the inventor (Haeberli) envisioned.

If the Search Function can be trusted, the only place "National Plier Company" shows up on GJ is 4.c's A-Z List of US Mfgrs thread, linked here, hence this new thread.

I plan to send the photos to DATAMP (their page on this tool linked here), because they don't have any on record in their database.

I don't know how the National Plier Company latched onto this patent (it was not assigned to them) or why they chose to produce a version of it in 1920, when they were established, nearly thirteen years later. As far as I can tell, this enterprise only lasted a few years.

 

[RTM]

Buddy of mine has one of these for sale, so I had to check if GJ VB knew of them, and of course, I was not disappointed. Guessed Lugz’s fingerprints would be on a post, didn’t expect it to be the only post.

His looks the same shape, but is nicely plated.

 

[four.cycle]

this is where the original reference came from, if you would like a comparison specimen. from a June 2020 ebay listing:

 

[Private Lugnutz]

the original reference

?

 

[four.cycle]

^ The reason it got on the list in the first place. I lifted those images from an ebay listing on 06/02/20 ... that's the only thing I had was the photos - no other documentation.
Your "Iron Age" clip is news to me.
Buffalo and Erie, PA were certainly hotbeds of manufacturing, weren't they?
I have been staring at "Google Earth" images trying to get a better grasp of that area's geography and topography... looks like it was busy busy busy busy up until about the 1980s or so.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

The reason it got on the list in the first place.

Ahhh! You're talking about your A-Z mfgrs list. Never mind. Thanks. I'm following now.