TRUE TEMPER timeline

S

Steve Tall

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Aug 28, 2010
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This basic timeline is fairly well known:

In 1930, the "True Temper" brand of axes began after the American Fork & Hoe company acquired the Kelly Axe Manufacturing Co.
In 1949, "True Temper" became the new corporate name of the American Fork & Hoe Co.
In 1982, True Temper's Kelly Works (Charleston WV) factory was closed.
In 1999, Ames (owner of the former Woodings-Verona axe factory in Nebraska) acquired True Temper, and eventually made True Temper axes at that facility.
More recently, in 2016, Ames discontinued their made-in-Nebraska "True American" axes and stopped listing axes on their products website, and this could be the end of an iconic American axe brand.

There are some gaps in this basic timeline, however, and some unanswered questions, such as:
Where were True Temper axes made (if anywhere) between 1982 and 1999?

The following detailed timeline was made to fill in some of the blanks, and perhaps help to answer some of the questions. Ownership changed a lot in the later years, and those details were included for the record.

The timeline below is based on a variety of sources:
YesteryearsTools.com
Company websites and catalogs (current and via archive.org)
Archived news articles (via google)
Trademark assignment dates (via USPTO).
In case of conflicting information and dates, the USPTO data and the archived news articles were given the most weight.

===================================

TRUE TEMPER timeline

1906 American Fork & Hoe Co. begins using a "True Temper" trademark for "farm and garden hand tools, consisting of forks, hoes, rakes, and potato hooks", according to trademark registration in 1907.
1930 American Fork & Hoe Co. acquires Kelly Axe Manufacturing Co.
1930 American Fork & Hoe Co. begins using the "True Temper" trademark for "axes, adzes, broadaxes, bush hooks, hatchets...", according to trademark registration in 1931.
1949 American Fork & Hoe changes corporate name to True Temper
1967 Allegheny-Ludlum Steel Co. acquires True Temper
1967 Mexican company Herramientas Nacionales S.A. (founded 1962) begins a strategic alliance with the American company True Temper, and acquires technology, machinery and designs
1970 The entire product line of Mexican company Herramientas Nacionales is consolidated under the "True Temper" brand
1975 The alliance between True Temper and Herramientas Nacionales (Mexico) is dissolved
1975 The brand "TRUPER" (derived from TRUe temPER) is introduced by Herramientas Nacionales (Mexico) to replace the True Temper brand on their products (TRUPER Herramientas eventually becomes the company name)
1981 True Temper is divided into two divisions, sports and hardware
1982 True Temper's Kelly Works (Charleston WV) factory closed May 28
1985 Emhart Group buys True Temper from Allegheny-Ludlum
1985 USM (which was part of Emhart since 1976) is assigned True Temper trademarks including some Kelly axe brands that were later assigned to Barco (in 1987)
1987 Ownership name for True Temper trademarks changed from USM to Emhart
1987 Kelly Axe trademarks assigned to Barco Industries from Emhart
1989 Black & Decker acquires Emhart (including True Temper)
1990 USM changes name to Emhart Enterprises
1990 Huffy buys True Temper (hardware) from Black & Decker
1999 Huffy sells True Temper (hardware) to U.S. Industries (owner of Ames)
1999 Ames merges with True Temper (hardware) to become Ames True Temper (owned by U.S. Industries)
2001 U.S. Industries sells Ames True Temper to a Chicago investment firm, Wind Point Partners
2004 Wind Point Partners sells Ames True Temper to a New York investment firm, Castle Harlan
2010 Castle Harlan sells Ames True Temper to Griffon Corp., a New York holdings and mgmt. co.
2012 True Temper starts offering "True American" brand of axes
2014 Ames True Temper is renamed The Ames Companies (owned by Griffon Corp)
2016 True Temper drops "True American" line of axes and tools, drops all axes from website product listing.
 
Some new questions emerge. The company USM was assigned the True Temper trademarks (including Kelly axe trademarks) for a number of years in the 1980s. Some axes can be found with a USM stamp, and some of these have the remnants of a Collins label, Lewistown PA, presumably made by Mann during a timespan that could include the 1980s.

Records about the Mann company during its later years are hard to find, and the details are murky. YesteryearsTools says that "The time frame and diversity has yet to be defined but reliable information reveals that sometime in the 1970s and/or 1980s some Plumb axes were being manufactured by the Mann Edge Tool Co. of Lewistown, PA." Was Mann also making axes for other companies such as USM/ True Temper during the 1980s and 1990s?
 
From the archived True Temper pages (at archive.org), showing the wood-handled axes available before the True American line was introduced, the True American axe lineup from late 2012, and the most recent lineup that was available:

December 2010
TrueTemperAxes-WoodHandle-Dec2010.PNG




October 2012
TrueTemperAxes-NewTrueAmerican-Oct2012.PNG



October, 2015
TrueTemperAxes-WoodHandle-Oct2016.PNG
 
More questions about the timeline:
Where were True Temper axes made during the years between 1982 (when the Charleston, WV factory closed) and 1999 (when Ames took over)? Were axes produced during 1990-1999, the years when True Temper was owned by Huffy (bicycles)?

I don't recall seeing any True Temper axe advertising or catalogs from the Huffy years (1990s). Regarding the 1980s, this book snippet from 1985 provides a clue:

"True Temper, for example, operated plants in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Tennessee to make forgings for its hand tools. Now [1985] True Temper is bringing in most of its hammerheads, axe heads, and other forgings from overseas..."

content

from
Under pressure: U.S. industry and the challenges of structural adjustment
by Catherine Stirling, John N. Yochelson
Westview Press, 1985 - Business & Economics - 312 pages
 
Steve Tall said:
More questions about the timeline:
Where were True Temper axes made during the years between 1982 (when the Charleston, WV factory closed) and 1999 (when Ames took over)? Were axes produced during 1990-1999, the years when True Temper was owned by Huffy (bicycles)?

I don't recall seeing any True Temper axe advertising or catalogs from the Huffy years (1990s). Regarding the 1980s, this book snippet from 1985 provides a clue:

"True Temper, for example, operated plants in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Tennessee to make forgings for its hand tools. Now [1985] True Temper is bringing in most of its hammerheads, axe heads, and other forgings from overseas..."

content

from
Under pressure: U.S. industry and the challenges of structural adjustment
by Catherine Stirling, John N. Yochelson
Westview Press, 1985 - Business & Economics - 312 pages
Click to expand...
Maybe it was contracted out to woodings-verona. My w-v us91 steel has similar feel to woodslasher
 
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Menards has boys axes and sledgehammer marked true temper, us17 stamped.They had a couple us16 boys axes and the US 17 ones had better finish no casting marks on the poll,the sledge hammers have a G stamped on the head.
 
crbnSteeladdict said:
Maybe it was contracted out to woodings-verona. My w-v us91 steel has similar feel to woodslasher
Click to expand...
Yes, it could be similar to how True Temper in recent years had some axes imported, and some made in the USA. That book from 1985 did say that True Temper was importing most of its axe heads at the time.
 
junkenstien said:
Menards has boys axes and sledgehammer marked true temper, us17 stamped.They had a couple us16 boys axes and the US 17 ones had better finish no casting marks on the poll,the sledge hammers have a G stamped on the head.
Click to expand...
Good to hear that they're apparently still producing True Temper axes in 2017, despite no online listing among their products.
 
Hickory n steel said:
Ok.
I only ask, because on my razor-back shovel it says " Union fork & how co " then " razor-back (R) ".
To me this appears to be a tool made by UF&H before switching their name to True Temper, but I could be totally wrong.
Click to expand...

Sounds like that shovel was made before the 1993 name change to UnionTools (and at least 13 years before UnionTools and Razor-Back became part of AMES), according to this:

"In 1993, Union Fork & Hoe was renamed UnionTools, and in 2006, UnionTools became part of The AMES Companies...
The Razor-Back brand of professional tools joined the AMES family of brands in 2006."

from http://global.ames.com/about/our-heritage/history/
 
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Steve Tall said:
Sounds like that shovel was made before the 1993 name change to UnionTools (and at least 13 years before UnionTools and Razor-Back became part of AMES), according to this:

"In 1993, Union Fork & Hoe was renamed UnionTools, and in 2006, UnionTools became part of The AMES Companies...
The Razor-Back brand of professional tools joined the AMES family of brands in 2006."

from http://global.ames.com/about/our-heritage/history/
Click to expand...

Thanks, good to know.
 
junkenstien said:
Yes sir,right peculiar.Don't see sledge hammers listed online either.It says distributed by ames on a sticker with the barcode.
Click to expand...
Jackson Professional Tools is a part of The Ames Companies, Inc., and their site also shows no axes in their products pages, but their "corporate" page says this:

"Striking Tools: We offer a wide range of striking tools, including axes, picks, mallets, mauls, wood splitters and sledgehammers. These products are marketed under the True Temper, Jackson Professional Tools, UnionTools, and Garant brand names.
We also manufacture an extensive line of repair handles for lawn and garden tools, such as long handle tools, snow tools and striking tools. Our repair handles are marketed under our True Temper and Garant brand names."

So there is evidently some cross-supply between companies/brands of the Ames companies. The only axes currently listed in the products pages of any of the Ames companies are the Razor-Back axes:

4112000_L_01.jpg

4222000_L_01-342x173.jpg

from http://www.razor-back.com/tools/axes-and-mauls/

The Razor-Back axes, according to a retailer I contacted, are labelled "Made in China", so I don't know what's up with the 2017 production (US17) of "True Temper" axes. Some final runs before stopping the US axe production? Or continuing production for the short term until kinks are worked out with the imported axe designs? Or continuing production (without much promotion), indefinitely, as long as retailers keep buying the US-made axes? It's a bit of a mystery at this point.
 
Here are some more details about this year in the timeline:
1987 Kelly Axe trademarks assigned to Barco Industries from Emhart


KELLY AXE / TRUE TEMPER TRADEMARKS ASSIGNED TO BARCO
Execution date: June 26, 1987
Date recorded: October 28, 1987

Assignment details
ASSIGNS THE ENTIRE INTEREST AND THE GOODWILL
Date recorded
Oct 28, 1987

Assignor
EMHART ENTERPRISES CORP. CORPORATION/NEW JERSEY

Assignee
BARCO INDUSTRIES, INC.
ROUTE 183 AND MACARTHUR ROAD
READING, PENNSYLVANIA
CORPORATION/PENNSYLVANIA

Properties (7 total)

1. BEST AXE MADE W. C. KELLY FLINT EDGE TEMPER ALEXANDRIA, IND, U.S.A.

large



2. [design with blue phantom bevels and remainder of head polished]


large




3. TOMMY

4. PERFECT

5. KELLY

6. KELLY PERFECT

7. WOODSLASHER




[source: USPTO]
 
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Help me date the True Temper stamp on these 2 axes. The line crossing the T's is unbroken on the one on the left. Otherwise, they are "almost" identical.
 
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