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The Descendants

Private Lugnutz

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The Authentic Jersey Shore
No, not the 2015 dramedy movie about a family of mixed Native/"Haole" Hawaiians who own 25,000 acres of pristine land on Kauai, or the iconic 70's era L.A. punk band (which was actually the Descendents).

This thread is a running list of GJ members - some quite active, others not so much, and a few fly-bys, whose ancestors were well- (or lesser-) known vintage tool industrialists!

The Vintage Tools Discussion forum is like a Google magnet that way, which is fitting, since the owner, @Ryan, is the great-great-grandson of James Cochran, the founder of the Cochran Pipe Wrench Mfg. Co., famous for the "Speednut" wrench and other tools. Ryan has occasionally dipped his blogger's pen into the family tewels - and you may notice the background for the forum is classily adorned with patent diagrams!

In alphabetical order:

Jamie Acheson (@jc1691): the great-grandson of Dr. Edward Acheson, the inventor of carborundum and the founder of the Caborundum Company, the maker of the famous sharpening stones. His posts looking for artifacts for his collection can be found here.

Joshua Ferguson (@jwjfjwjf): the grandson of a primary engineer at Trimont and H.K. Porter, and the founder of Trimo-Ferguson and Porter-Ferguson, Roxbury, Mass., known for auto body tools. Joshua is a periodically very active and productive participant here on GJ and has shared stories, information, documents, and examples on various threads.

David Gustafson (@david_gus), whose grandfather, Raymond Gustafson, made tools contemporaneous to early Crescent tools, marked "R. GUSTFASON TOOL CO., JAMESTOWN, N.Y." These tools are very rare. Only a few have shown up here. David's post can be found here...

Kurtis Palmer (@kurtis palmer), the grandson of the founder of Palmer Brothers Tool Co. ("WELLOCT" pliers) in Meadville, PA, replied to that thread, but hasn't been seen since.

G. Schick (@Gschick), the great-grandson of Herb Schick, the founder of Schick Products, Inc., in Belmont, CA.

Bill Woods (@Grayspoked), the grandson of the founder of JO Mfg, L.A., Calif. (special sockets, wrenches, torque wrenches and other aviation related tools). Bill is a periodically active and gregarious participant here on GJ and, like Joshua Ferguson, has shared photos of his family collection, stories, anecdotes, and 'inside baseball' kind of information on JO.

Unnamed daughters (cousins) - @DaighterROSCO and @OtherdaughterROSCO - of the Rosenberg Brothers, who started Rosco tools.

Unnamed grandson (@brchien) of National Hand Tool Company founder.
 
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Private Lugnutz

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^ Well, they just keep popping up left and right, which is kind of cool if you think about it. It's a testament not only to GJ, as a site designed to attract the like-minded, but the world in general, and the vintage mechanical tools milieu, in particular. That there are family members interested enough in their ancestral tree to find us and join us, if only once, or from time to time. I just figured I might as well track them in one place.
 

RTM

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SF Bay Area
Not quite a tool, but a storage company, Steel Storage Files (SSF) of Cleveland.
Dave Regenhardt, grandson of the founder, checked in after a history posted on the Wooster Ohio maker of storage cabinets.


 
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Provincial

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Sep 21, 2011
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Near Salem, OR
It was great to find that @Grayspoked had handled my torque wrench packaging it for shipment well over 50 years ago. I bought it new back then, and have handled it carefully. It is still accurate after all these years.

Interactions like this are special, and priceless.
 
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Private Lugnutz

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Although I doubt we'll ever hear from him again, I forgot about this guy, whose wife was one of the Eames Bros granddaughters!
 
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Private Lugnutz

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Checking in with us recently was Jenny Lattanzio (@Jennyrlm18 ), whose grandfather, Al, founded the Bell Motor Parts store in Coraopolis, PA, in 1946. While not a hand tool manufacturer, their complementary gift screwdrivers made by VACO and others show up from time to time.
 

Rileysan

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Sep 11, 2015
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Location
Milwaukie, Oregon
I seem to recall a member of the Huot family chiming in about HUOT Manufacturing's history of contracting with retailers.


Edit:

John Huot has posted a few times in response to questions about their tool boxes

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