I doubt that, Champion DeArment,was a Farrier tools mfg first, then got into pliers and specifically Channellocks.
from AA:
Champion DeArment is actually one of the older American tool makers in continuous operation, with original roots going back to 1886 when its founder, George B. DeArment, operated a blacksmith shop.
Champion DeArment offered a wide selection of ballpeen hammers, with head weights ranging from 3 up to 40 ounces.
Then maybe it's just a coincidence that Stanley-Atha branded ball peen hammers and Champion DeArment/Channellock branded ball peen hammers look so much alike.
Or, maybe Stanley-Atha didn't care that in 1914, when Champion DeArment first offered hammers (note 1 below), that their ball peen hammers looked an awful lot like the ones Atha had already been making for at least 40 years (note 2 below).
In any case, there's no doubt that Atha made Stanley's ball peen hammers:
1904 catalog:
1925 catalog (and a Hammacher Schlemmer catalog at that, when they sold real tools and hardware instead of just shiny Yuppie toys):
1939 Stanley Catalog No. 139:
Note 1: 1914 date from the Channellock website history page (scroll down alongside 3rd photo):
http://www.channellockproducts.com/history.php
Note 2: Note at bottom of Atha listing in 1904 catalog image posted above that it says:
We have sold this brand of Hammers (sic) over 30 years, and guarantee them.
That implies that Atha had been making hammers since at least 1874, predating Champion DeArment's line of hammers by some 40 years.
Note also that the "Mechanics' Pride" brand hammers listed below the Atha hammers look a lot like Stanley-Atha and Champion DeArment ball peen hammers. Maybe it was just the style of the day.
Further, to confirm the history of Atha, John Walter's
Antique & Collectible Stanley Tools Guide to Identity & Value (basically the bible of Stanley tool collecting) says:
It was the purchase of the Atha Tool Company in 1913, of Newark, New Jersey, which provided the most substantial addition to Stanley's proposed line of steel percussion tools. Atha's history went almost as far back a Stanley's. (ed. note: Stanley's went back to 1859 as The Stanley Rule & Level Co.) It had accumulated important resources in timber and steel and offered a line of products including hammers, sledges, wedges, anvil tools, blacksmith's tongs, railroad track tools, cold chisels, punches, structural-iron workers' tools and a considerable number of related items. Most importantly, they had developed a fine reputation, built largely by the skilled craftsmanship of a veteran staff. Stanley preserved the organization intact, as a division operating in Newark.
Mostly this.
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