Vintage Logos #5 (Festool, Crescent, Millers Falls)

The company named “Festool” has only been around since 2000, but their roots go all the way back to 1925 when G. Stoll and A. Fezer started “Fezer & Stoll”.  8 years later they shortened the name to “Festo” and kept going.  In 1992 Festo created “Festo Tooltechnic”.  8 years after that (these guys seem to make big moves in 8-year increments) the power tool division was spun off into an independent company called “Festool”.  

The Crescent Tool Company started in Jamestown, N.Y. in 1907.    Their adjustable wrench soon became a generic term for all adjustable wrenches: the Crescent wrench.  Chas. Lindbergh had one with him when he flew the “Spirit of St. Louis” across the Atlantic in 1927.  The brand has changed hands several times since and is now part of the Apex Tool Group.

One of the granddaddies of woodworking hand tools is the Millers Falls Company.  It was started in 1868 as Gunn & Amidon.  Then a few years later the Millers Falls Manufacturing Co., before becoming Millers Falls Co. in 1872.  The company changed hands a few times until 2002 when the trademark was purchased by Hangzhou Great Star Industrial of China.  In 2021 USPTO showed the trademark as expired/unknown and another trademark sales site shows it for sale.  What a shame.