Above, a Hunter slot head screwdriver in my shop.
Beginning as early as the 1950's, Hunter Tools made a variety of small tools targeted at the home shop market. Their primary product seems to have been a self-starting screwdriver based on a 1946 U.S. patent assigned to John Hagness:
This was eventually marketed as the "Magic Tip" but they also marketed the "Smitty" Allen key set and a magnetic pick-up tool rather awkwardly named the "Re-Chut" along with the equally poorly-named "Tork-It" screw driver. Their best offering seems to have been a neat little lever-operated bench micrometer. Over the next two decades, according to their ads, they moved location a number of times while remaining in the greater Los Angeles area. The company was acquired by K-D Tools in 1979.
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| Popular Mechanics, September 1952 |
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| Popular Mechanics, June 1953 |
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| Popular Mechanics, December 1953 |
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| Popular Mechanics, November 1954 |
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| Popular Mechanics, May 1961 |
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| Popular Science, November 1972 |
I still use the M12S Hunter screw holder driver to insert set screws in old radio dials, some of which are recessed almost an inch on big dials.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I enjoy browsing your site occasionally, and especially when I find a blog that applies to my interests.
I still use my set of sub miniature screwdrivers from Hunter Tools, circa 1970s. Ah, nostalgia....
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear! Love when these tools keep on being useful.
ReplyDeleteI found a smitty allen wrench set today
ReplyDeleteIt was my dad's
So rare to find anything with made in usa on it
I did a search and it led me here thank you for the info
You're welcome!
ReplyDeleteHave a hunter x8 brad setter. Glad i found someone else interested in the history .
ReplyDeleteI just found a screw holding screwdriver at our town's "swap shop" yesterday. I could just barely make out "hunter" and "los angeles 23, cal" and maybe a serial number? on the handle. Obviously it is old based on the old telephone code. I'm just outside of Boston, so it is a long way from where it started! Very cool to see the old marketing and patent drawings, it works just about how I imagined it would inside.
ReplyDeleteA few years back I found an original "Pi-tape" for measuring diameter via the circumference. It comes in a distinctive round aluminum case, I spotted it in the scrap metal heap from 15 feet away!
Never heard of a "Pi tape". Good idea!
ReplyDeleteGot a "13 W Hunter Phillips #1" ratcheting screwdriver at a flea market today. Cannot yet find anything online about it. Evidently not something they made a lot of?
ReplyDelete