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?
ReplyDeleteI’m about to clean up and sharpen this pair of hunter tools Santa Fe springs scissors.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I've been going through my late husband's tools and came across the brad pusher. I had no idea what it was and no one I asked knew either. We were all stumped. I can't wait to tell everyone! Cheers!
ReplyDeleteI worked for Hunter tools in the 70's, when they were located in Santa Fe Springs CA... I knew Smitty they named a Allen Wrench se after him
ReplyDelete