Irwin Industrial Tools

Additionally, it produces clamps, drill bits, taps and dies, screw extractors, bolt extractors, saw blades, pipe wrenches, screwdrivers, snips, and other construction tools. Irwin was founded in 1885 in Martinsville, Ohio as the Irwin Auger Bit Company by Charles Irwin, a pharmacist. Irwin had bought the rights to a solid-center auger bit from a local blacksmith. In 1924, another blacksmith, Danish immigrant William S. Petersen of DeWitt, Nebraska, invented the first locking pliers and named them Vise-Grips. In 1934, Petersen formed the Petersen Manufacturing Company to produce them. In 1957, Petersen added an easy-release trigger to the design, creating the modern locking pliers design. In 1985, American Tool Companies bought out Petersen Manufacturing.