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Proto body hammer

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henry29

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I picked up this proto body hammer at an estate sale today.
It was filthy when I found it, I cleaned it up and it looks like it's never been used.

I can't find much about proto hammers.

Is there any way to date it?

I think it feels very good and very well balanced, just kinda hate to use it since it's so nice.
 

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Outlawmws

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henry29 said:
I picked up this proto body hammer at an estate sale today.
It was filthy when I found it, I cleaned it up and it looks like it's never been used.

I can't find much about proto hammers.

Is there any way to date it?

I think it feels very good and very well balanced, just kinda hate to use it since it's so nice.
Click to expand...

Flowers, Dinner, maybe a movie in that order.

:3gears:
 
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Conductor562

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well....I admit up front that I'm not as good with the hammers as some of the more common items, but the "MFG USA" means it was made after 1956. From 1949-56 Proto was stamped "Los Angeles", so we know it's after that. It's definitely pre-Stanley, so we can set a range from 1957 to 1984 with little effort. IR bought Proto in 1964. By 1970 they had turned their focus almost completely toward heavy industry. The font of the stamping is the ticket to finding your answer. The font appears to be (this is where I could be wrong) to be pre IR era. I'm saying it's 1957-64. None of the IR era stampings I've ever seen look like that, but I can't honestly say I know that they weren't. If it's IR era I'd bet the farm it's pre 1970.
 
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henry29

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I noticed the few proto hammers I found online had the ® after the Proto stamp.

Everything in the garage was from the early 40's to middle 50's, with lots of books magazines and newspapers.
 
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bluebolt

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It's a nice hammer but it was made to be USED! Treat and use it right and it will like nice for a long time.
 
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henry29

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bluebolt said:
It's a nice hammer but it was made to be USED! Treat and use it right and it will like nice for a long time.
Click to expand...

I'm sure I will use it, I couldn't wait to get it cleaned up so I could.
I was just Kind of surprised to find that hadn't been used as old as it is.
 
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Conductor562

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Gort the giant robot said:
At what point did Proto start marking their tools PROFESSIONAL ? 1965 up ?

Gort.
Click to expand...

The "Professional" part is as old as the Proto name. There are a couple different stories about where Proto came from, but the most popular theory is that Morris Pendleton held a company wide contest to decide what name would replace Plomb. The name Proto was a combination of Professional and Tools. The immediately began eluding to this in their advertising and even the earliest Proto logo had "Professional Tools" at the bottom. The professional stamping on the tools came later. Exactly how much later I can't say as I don't have the catalogs and such to study. I'm pretty sure it came along in the IR era, but I'm not sure at what point.
 
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Conductor562

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henry29 said:
I noticed the few proto hammers I found online had the ® after the Proto stamp.

Everything in the garage was from the early 40's to middle 50's, with lots of books magazines and newspapers.
Click to expand...

I just looked on alloy artifacts. According to them the exact date the registered stamp appears isn't known but it is believed to be in the mid 60's. I'm going out on a limb and assuming IR added this pretty much immediately. This supports my 57-64 pre-IR theory.
 
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Conductor562

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Further reading on AA suggest the "Professional" stamping was added in the mid 60's as well. I knew it was an IR addition, just wasn't sure it was that early in their run.
 
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