SellersMachineCo
Well-known member
I am a bit invested in researching American tool production and especially the death of the industry in the last 20 years or so. I found links to both the Western Forge and Eagle Grip factory auctions while I was reading about some other tool news. I was scrolling through the huge Western Forge auction catalog thinking about how many tools that I own had been produced there and how sad it was that all the equipment was being sold off, which was the final nail in the coffin for them. For whatever reason I noticed all of the huge forging presses, they were all a particular shade of green and looked well maintained. Later when I was looking through the Eagle Grip auction I noticed very similar green forging presses. Sure enough, with a little investigation I found the serial numbers listed matched the Western Forge presses. Apparently Malco went to the Western Forge auction and bought up some machinery, possibly with plans to start up some of the same hand tool manufacturing at the new Eagle Grip plant in Nebraska? I haven’t had time to look any further and see what other equipment in the Eagle Grip auction came from Western Forge, but I’m sure there is more. Either way I thought you guys would find it as interesting, and sad as I did. Twice now these machines have been shut down and sold off. From my understanding, a lot of them were scrapped in the process. This also seems to confirm that no buyer was found for Eagle Grip and there isn’t much hope to see them being produced again.
