Fulton or Fulton Tool Company.
February 28, 2014 10 Comments
The problem with being on a quest for knowledge is the endless circles you often get stuck in, and the off roads that follow. I’m always looking for information on older Sargent hand planes. So recently I bought a hand plane off ebay that is an obvious early Sargent 409. It’s got Rosewood, a type 4 base, with a type 3 frog, and a “Fulton Tool Co” cutter.
The type 4 base dates it to 1911 to 1918.
I know Sargent made most of the Fulton planes for Sears, so I wanted to see what they were.
So off I go to find out what “Fulton Tool Co” is. My original research brought me to one of 2 conclusions. The first possibility was the Fulton Tool Company was a steel manufacture that made tools and accessories along with plane irons. The second was Fulton Tool Com were early Fulton planes.
Further research showed all of the planes I could find with Fulton Tool Co cutters seemed to be early Sargent’s. So could these just be Fulton? Was the Sears branded Fulton and Fulton Tool Company the same?
Even further research shows that the Craftsman brand came about in 1927, whereas Sears started selling Fulton in either 1905 or 1908. This lead me to believe it was possible that Fulton Tool Company could have been the early branding, and after Sears started to market Craftsman, Fulton became a secondary line.
This theory was further complicated when I bought a United Hardware and Tool Company catalog reprint from 1925. This shows the following photos.
The Logo
And the hand planes
So its fairly obvious that in 1925 these planes were NOT Sargent made. But could they still be the Sears rebranded?
So do I need to start finding early Craftsman catalogs to work this out? According to this site, (http://home.comcast.net/~alloy-artifacts/craftsman-early-tools.html#fulton) In the pre-Craftsman days, Fulton appeared to be the most popular brand offered by the Sears for tools such as saws, axes, planes, chisels, hammers, pliers, and many other items. References to Fulton tools appear in Sears catalogs at least as early as 1908, with illustrations showing either "Fulton" or "Fulton Tool Co." on the tools.
There is some further interesting history (http://www.searsarchives.com/history/index.htm) about Sears.
So at least for right now, I’m going to go on the assumption that either "Fulton Tool Co." or "Fulton" Branded tools where marketed rebranded tools for Sears. "Fulton Tool Co." probably existed prior to 1927. To be determined will be when Sargent stopped manufacturing them. Since later model Fulton’s are made by Sargent as well, they must have won the contract back at some point.
It’s known that Sears put the contract out to bid for the tools, I don’t know the details or derations of the contracts, so that’s some more information to be gathered.
I hope you found this interesting, and please contact me if you have ANY information regarding anything about Sargent hand planes.
Here are some other examples I’ve managed to dig up. The are just internet found pictures.
![clip_image002[5]](https://timetestedtools.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/clip_image0025.jpg "clip_image002[5]")
![clip_image004[5]](https://timetestedtools.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/clip_image0045.jpg "clip_image004[5]")
![clip_image006[4]](https://timetestedtools.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/clip_image0064.jpg "clip_image006[4]")
Pictures of a Fulton as shown in the United Hardware and Tool Company catalog.
According to Roger Smith in PATENTED TRANSITIONAL & METALLIC PLANES IN AMERICA Fulton was made by Sargent except for 1925, and he states in 1925 they were made by United Hardware and Tool Company
time tested tools 
I am going to assume you looked at this.
http://home.comcast.net/~alloy-artifacts/craftsman-early-tools.html#fulton
Yes Toby, I refer to it in the blog.
I have a very old socket set 1/2″ drive, sockets in 1/32″ increments that are Fulton brand. It has a different logo though. I have a picture of the logo but not sure how to post it here.
post them here http://timetestedtools.lefora.com/
I picked up what appears to be a Fulton #32 jack plane at an estate sale. Recognizing some telltale Sargent manufacturing for the adjustment lever piqued my curiosity, so with a little digging, I found another possibility for the Fulton name. Somewhere online (can’t recall where, and I unfortunately didn’t make a note of the URL), I read that Sears had Sargent manufacture a line of planes before they introduced the Craftsman brand in 1927, and, more to the point, that they picked the name “Fulton” from their then-current location in the Enterprise Building at the corner of Fulton, DesPlaines and Wayman streets in the Fulton River industrial neighborhood of Chicago. They had relocated there in 1896 until a further move in 1904: http://www.searsarchives.com/stores/history_chicago_first.htm
This is as far as I have gotten on this little bit of research.
Thanks for the additional information.
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That’s probably before Craftsman, so its Sears primary line. Nothing second rate about it.
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I have a Fulton 3709 BB, made by Millers Falls. It seems almost all the big brands manufactured Fulton at some point. I ‘m kind of under the impression Premium Sears, between the 1880s, and 1960s, were rebranded economical versions of products the contracted manufacturers was already producing. I’m calling them economy versions because Fultons lack a horizontal adjustment screw running through the body. The mold left the voids and surfaces needed to support the mechanics, they just weren’t milled out after casting.
I’m guessing that took risks out of ramping up production, and getting stuck with parts exclusive to Sears, if the contract unwinds. Sears probably wanted to maintain consistency, but manufacturers relying on patented designs parts for their signature brands, already in production, was one of the few consistencies they got. Maybe it was to keep manufacturers from duplicating their Fulton versions, exactly, or just to keep costs down, but from an optics stand point, it was probably a bummer for Sears. It turned out great for customers. Some years the premium Sears models were nearly identical to the pro grades, at lower cost. Just slightly dumbed down, which made them easier for a weekend warrior to dial in. My Fulton 3709, is actually a Millers #8, without the brand name, the segmented lever cap, and the frog is fixed. It’s a quality user, has a few of the finer details, but I didn’t have to pay the collectors markup.
Mine seems to be a Type 2 from 1936, it has a few Type 1 characteristics that apparently carried over that first year. I could be wrong, but the Fulton in your last two pics looks more like a Millers to me, than a Sargents. If I’m right, that might not seem like great news, but I’m thinking it’s a Type 1, which date between 1929-35. If it’s a 3710, that means it was mostly assembled with parts taken from the original #9 bins. That’s about as good as bad news gets.
The knob, pedestal, levercap, and the tote, are a few of the details I’m basing this off. One of the easiest differences to spot is the top of the lateral adjuster. I can’t tell from the pictures, but it looks a little like it only has a single dog ear, instead of putting one on either side. There’s plenty of FrankenPlanes on the market, so a lateral arm, or maybe even the entire frog might not be enough to tell the whole story.
Most of the components have something distinct to help identify them, one really simple distinction with Millers bodies is almost all of them were stamped ‘Fulton’, with the model number on the outside surface of the left cheek. Potentially more telling than the frog, although a very small number have been spotted in the wild, without a stamp, over the years. I haven’t seen anything that explains why they exist, so the working theory is either a batch skipped a step one time, or one just gets missed occasionally. Whatever the case, if there isn’t a stamp, the chances it’s Miller drop, just not to 0%.
The only other difference that comes to mind is the bodies finish. Millers never japanned their tools. They used oil, and lead based paints from the beginning. If a prewar Fulton has japanning, it’s either not a Millers, or someone refinished it. If it helps, an easy japanning test is to give the coating a good rub with a dry Q-tip, or cotton ball. If it transfers a hint of dark brown, it’s japanning, if it’s anything else, it’s not. Enameled paint probably won’t transfer color at all. If it does however, it’ll be the same color as the substrate.
I’m really happy with my Fulton, but before I pick up another one, I’d like to get my hands on a real deal branded plane from any of the Fulton manufacturers.