Elliott Lucas ‘ESSO’ Pliers

[AdrianUK]

EL pliers commonly found, but I’ve not seen any marked ESSO before, assuming the petroleum company, has anyone come across any also ?

 

[toolsntat]

Hi Adrian, hoping your well.
No, not something I have come across at all.
Dare we assume ESSO were buying the tools and putting the mark on themselves (1973 ?)
Cheers Andy

 

[AdrianUK]

Hi Andy, am good thx, you too I trust.
That’s a good spot, I’d not considered that, I think your correct, looking at the ESSO mark again, it does appear to have been stamped over the original EL stamp.
An Esso promotion or similar maybe.

 

[Sachakins]

Maybe tools supplied for apprentices or like..

 

[JobandKnock]

Why not stamp the company name on tools? BT and the Post Office both did that up until the 1990s on both hand and power tools (in fact BT even got some power tool manufacturere, like Kango-Wolf, to make their tools in the ten corporate colour of yellow), anyone who mooches around fleamarkets is bound to have seen the War Dept arrow (often with a year number) stamped or branded onto tools at some time or another and in the USA the phone company Bell Telephone (Bell Systems) often had their stamp on tools issued to linesmen.

Maybe tools supplied for apprentices or like..

I think that is unlikely - as an apprentice you were often "given" a basic toolkit by the firm which you then paid back through weekly deductions from your wages. I know I was. Most firms subsidised the cost of the tools, but I never came across any that loaned thereapprentices tools then took them back when you came out of your time. Another way you got your kit together was to buy secondhand - many tool dealers used to sell both new and secondhand stuff, a practice which has now more or less disappeared (one of the few shops I know still like that is Paul's in Stalybridge, Manchester). Where I worked there was also a practice for a retired joiner who was selling off his tools (or more often the widow) to bring in the tools which would be laid out on a piece of beize on an empty bench. As an apprentice you were "advised" which tools you needed and what to pay for each item, even to the point of your mentor subbing you if you didn't have the money to hand (I was often skint, and my gaffer was a good 'un) - that way the old fellow or his widow got a fairer price than the tatters or dealers would pay. i built quite a bit of my tool kit that way, but I did notice hat some of the guys would buy stuff that they didn't need to make sure a decent amount of money was raised. Different times, eh?

 

[D_W]

Probably sold at esso stations (esso still exists in canada where it wasn't subject to US monopoly laws - that somehow google and others are exempt from right now) or as part of a tool kit sold at esso stations.

Interesting that a UK brand of pliers would be sourced as there must've been dozens of makers of good pliers and edge tools in the US when esso was still around. Less curious would be if they are later and were sold in Canada where the public lands are still called "the Queen's land".

 

[mikej460]

Why not stamp the company name on tools? BT and the Post Office both did that up until the 1990s on both hand and power tools (in fact BT even got some power tool manufacturere, like Kango-Wolf, to make their tools in the ten corporate colour of yellow), anyone who mooches around fleamarkets is bound to have seen the War Dept arrow (often with a year number) stamped or branded onto tools at some time or another and in the USA the phone company Bell Telephone (Bell Systems) often had their stamp on tools issued to linesmen.


I think that is unlikely - as an apprentice you were often "given" a basic toolkit by the firm which you then paid back through weekly deductions from your wages. I know I was. Most firms subsidised the cost of the tools, but I never came across any that loaned thereapprentices tools then took them back when you came out of your time. Another way you got your kit together was to buy secondhand - many tool dealers used to sell both new and secondhand stuff, a practice which has now more or less disappeared (one of the few shops I know still like that is Paul's in Stalybridge, Manchester). Where I worked there was also a practice for a retired joiner who was selling off his tools (or more often the widow) to bring in the tools which would be laid out on a piece of beize on an empty bench. As an apprentice you were "advised" which tools you needed and what to pay for each item, even to the point of your mentor subbing you if you didn't have the money to hand (I was often skint, and my gaffer was a good 'un) - that way the old fellow or his widow got a fairer price than the tatters or dealers would pay. i built quite a bit of my tool kit that way, but I did notice hat some of the guys would buy stuff that they didn't need to make sure a decent amount of money was raised. Different times, eh?

As a computer engineer in 1982 I was given a comprehensive tool kit from my new employer and I'm still using it now, top quality stuff except for the case it came in which fell apart years ago.

 

[JobandKnock]

Interesting that a UK brand of pliers would be sourced....

The OP is in Hampshire, England, surely?

Probably sold at esso stations (esso still exists in canada where it wasn't subject to US monopoly laws - that somehow google and others are exempt from right now) or as part of a tool kit sold at esso stations.

I did work at an Esso station in the UK at weekends during my last couple of years at school (about the date as this tool). I don't recall us selling tools marked "Esso", or many tools at all, and as a putative motorbike owner I was always on the lookout for cheap tools back then after I bought a frame, two wheels, a tank and a tea chest full of bnits as my first bike. If we'd sold them I'd have been in there like a rat up a drainpipe, especially as we got something like 25% staff discount on anything we bought from the shop (taken in lieu of wages, of course).

I recall being told that by 1971, the year they were taken over by James Neill, that Elliott-Lucas were responsible for making 40 percent of the pliers, pincers and nippers in the U.K. A sizeable chunk of the rest were by that time being made by Walter Lawrence in Warrington (another firm nobody has ever heard of) and both firms rebranded their products as required. That being the case you'd have thought that if Esso wanted to sell branded product they'd simply have ordered the tools ready stamped with their name and logo and without the Elliott-Lucas "tag"

There is an interesting article on the BBC web site which details part of the history of Elliott-Lucas, including mention of them manufacturing tools for Rabone (later subsumed by Stanley GB), Tyzack, Sorby, JC Clay (later part of Paramo) and John Hall of Cardiff (still known for engineer's countersinks amongst other things). Elsewhere I found this reference to Elliott-Lucas where one of the respondents in the comments section makes reference to having bought second hand electricians tools stamped "Rolls Royce", "Hoover", "GPO" (the Post Office) and various marked with date and broad arrow signifying government property. This echos my comments about the liklihood of the "Esso" stamp being an owner's stamp as opposed to a marketing ploy

 

[AdrianUK]

The OP is in Hampshire, England, surely?


I did work at an Esso station in the UK at weekends during my last couple of years at school (about the date as this tool). I don't recall us selling tools marked "Esso", or many tools at all, and as a putative motorbike owner I was always on the lookout for cheap tools back then after I bought a frame, two wheels, a tank and a tea chest full of bnits as my first bike. If we'd sold them I'd have been in there like a rat up a drainpipe, especially as we got something like 25% staff discount on anything we bought from the shop (taken in lieu of wages, of course).

I recall being told that by 1971, the year they were taken over by James Neill, that Elliott-Lucas were responsible for making 40 percent of the pliers, pincers and nippers in the U.K. A sizeable chunk of the rest were by that time being made by Walter Lawrence in Warrington (another firm nobody has ever heard of) and both firms rebranded their products as required. That being the case you'd have thought that if Esso wanted to sell branded product they'd simply have ordered the tools ready stamped with their name and logo and without the Elliott-Lucas "tag"

There is an interesting article on the BBC web site which details part of the history of Elliott-Lucas, including mention of them manufacturing tools for Rabone (later subsumed by Stanley GB), Tyzack, Sorby, JC Clay (later part of Paramo) and John Hall of Cardiff (still known for engineer's countersinks amongst other things). Elsewhere I found this reference to Elliott-Lucas where one of the respondents in the comments section makes reference to having bought second hand electricians tools stamped "Rolls Royce", "Hoover", "GPO" (the Post Office) and various marked with date and broad arrow signifying government property. This echos my comments about the liklihood of the "Esso" stamp being an owner's stamp as opposed to a marketing ploy

All sounds very plausible, I’ve a few old GPO and arrow marked tools, always super quality. These Esso marked ones were just not something I’d not come across before. Thanks for the interesting links.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Where I worked there was also a practice for a retired joiner who was selling off his tools (or more often the widow) to bring in the tools which would be laid out on a piece of beize on an empty bench. As an apprentice you were "advised" which tools you needed and what to pay for each item, even to the point of your mentor subbing you if you didn't have the money to hand (I was often skint, and my gaffer was a good 'un) - that way the old fellow or his widow got a fairer price than the tatters or dealers would pay. i built quite a bit of my tool kit that way, but I did notice hat some of the guys would buy stuff that they didn't need to make sure a decent amount of money was raised. Different times, eh?

My b.i.l was an apprentice ship's joiner in Devonport in the '70s - he had some immaculate older tools he bought this way. They were from a retired joiner's THIRD set.

 

[jcassidy]

I have a pair of spark plug pliers marked Yamaha, which I assume formed part of a Yamaha branded tool kit.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Most of the tools in m/c kits should have been branded "cheese".