Chicago, then Rockford, Illinois · 1862–present (woodworking hand tools into the 1970s)
Greenlee hand tools
Twin brothers Robert and Ralph Greenlee, sons of a Pennsylvania barrel-machine inventor, set up in Chicago in 1862. They built the first successful hollow-chisel mortiser in 1876 and moved to Rockford, Illinois, in 1904. Their catalogs say the hand tools were made by the same workforce that made the mortising and boring tools for their machines, and by the 1920s they sold socket and tang chisels, gouges, augers and drawknives. Greenlee Tool Co. was split off for small tools in 1927. Ex-Cell-O bought the company in 1969, Textron in 1986 and Emerson in 2018. Greenlee still sold woodworking chisels in 1970, but today it makes tools for electricians.
1 model we cover.
How to spot one in the photos
The GREENLEE name on the blade or socket; socket chisels in Nos. 200 (butt), 230 (firmer) and 265 (framing); earlier sockets welded to the blade, later ones forged in one piece; three-ply leather-tipped handles.
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