Millers Falls Publications — 1961-1981

1961

Millers Falls Company hand, prescision tool catalog, 1961

Title from cover. Small format catalog. Date is inferred from cover numbering (H-161C) as number H-162C was published in 1962.

Beneath the illustration is a blank space for a hardware dealer's stamp.


Millers Falls Company small format electric tools catalog, 1961

Title from cover. Small format catalog. Includes attachments to convert selected hand drills into hedge trimmers, floor polishers, bench grinders, bench sanders, jig saws, sabre saws, finish sanders, circular saws, and portable planers.

Beneath the illustration is a blank space for a hardware dealer's stamp.


Millers Falls Company Tool tresure brochure, 1961

Title from cover. A counter-top promotion printed on both sides, folded twice times to form a booklet. Promotes a treasure hunt at participating hardware stores and obviously part of a larger sales campaign. Customers lucky enough to choose the right key to open a so-called treasure chest would receive the free Millers Falls tool housed inside. The inner panels of the brochure promote some of the company's most popular electric tools. The back panel promotes an assortment of hand-powered tools.


1962

Millers Falls Company hand, prescision tool catalog, 1962

Title from cover. Content of large and small format catalogs is identical. Twenty pages shorter than its predecessor.


A brochure introducing the Millers Falls Company to Ingersoll-Rand Company Customers, 1962

Title from cover. A counter-top promotion printed on both sides, folded five times to form a booklet. From 1962 through 1973, the parent company Ingersoll-Rand expected the Millers Falls Company to promote its own products. This brochure, introducing its new acquisition to Ingersoll-Rand Customers, is one of the few exceptions. Ingersoll-Rand began taking a greater role in the promotion of its subsidiary in 1974, it had little understanding of the consumer hand tool market and never promoted the line aggressively.

Copyrighted by Ingersoll-Rand, rather than Millers Falls.


1963

Millers Falls Company 17 new tools promotion

Title from cover. A trade circular that introduces, among others, six new hatchets, a new series of tenite-handled screwdrivers and the no. 3040 chisel set.


Millers Falls Company 17 new tools promotion

Title from cover. A football-themed trade circular that introduces five new electric tools and eight new hand tools including a Dyna-Grip screwdriver set, shears, crosscut saws, snips, hex wrench sets and a checked-face framing hammer. Also features promotional prices on a number of other items in the line.


Millers Falls Company distributor's pack

Shown here is a distributor's pack either made up by or for S. L. McKenzie, jr., of the Dallas district office. His business card is clipped inside and bears the handwritten notation "8/20/63". The soft black cover contains current catalogs, distributor price lists and promotional items which have been pre-punched for use in a five-ring binder. Some of the contents of the binder pertaining to hand tools have been included as individual items on this list.


1964

Millers Falls Company hand, precision tools catalog, 1964

Title from cover. Both the traditional triangular and the new square trademarks can be seen on the cover. Gentleman on cover bears a striking resemblance to Ward Cleaver, the father figure on the Leave it to Beaver television series that ran until 1963.


Millers Falls Company price list, 1964

Title from cover. Contains "List prices applying to: H64-Z Hand and precision tool catalogs and all supplemental catalogs, pages and inserts." Uncoated blue paper.

Shown as an example of price lists produced at the time. Other dates and versions exist.


1965

Millers Falls Company hand, precision tools catalog, 1965

Title from cover. Except for the catalog number, the cover is identical to that of the 1964 catalog. The catalog includes seven pages of wrenches, sockets, and pliers not seen in the 1964 catalog. The new tools were likely manufactured by the Pendleton Tool Company, the other major hand tool manufacturer in the Ingersoll-Rand Company stable.


How to Build and Improve Your Home Workshop booklet, 1965

Title from cover. Contains plans for a simple bench, tool board, and supply cabinet. The company hired popular woodworking writer John G. Shea to develop plans for the pegboard-and-plywood projects and anticipated customers would be willing to pay ten cents for the information. Five of the eleven pages consist of ads for Millers Falls tools.


1967

Millers Falls Company hand tool catalog, 1967

Title from cover. The size and nice layout of the catalog obscure the fact that the product line is shrinking.


1969

Millers Falls Company hand tools catalog, 1969

Title from cover. A undated catalog, but assuredly 1969. Reflective of the changes taking place in the hardware trade at this time. Many smaller items are now sold carded—i.e., on shrink-wrapped cardboard, pre-punched for hanging on a pegboard hook. Introduces the No. 9140, 9775 and 9790 teflon-coated planes.


1970

Millers Falls Company electric tools catalog, 1970

Title from cover. A undated catalog, but published 1970. Most items targeted to the consumer hand tool market. Includes drills, a bench grinder, a hedge trimmer, routers, sanders, circular saws, jig and sabre saws, and soldering guns. May be the only Millers Falls catalog to include a vacuum cleaner (canister type).


Millers Falls Company Shock-Proof tools booklet, 1970

Title from cover. A undated catalog, but published in 1970. Promotes the company's consumer line of double-insulated Shock-Proof tools. Deaths from the careless use of electric hand tools were not unheard of. The Shock-Proof line protected users who thoughtlessly removed the cord’s grounding prong and protected against problems due to cord wear. Shock-Proof tools were safer than conventionally grounded tools if used in damp conditions.


1971

Millers Falls Company distributor price list, 1971

Title from cover. A combination price list and catalog covering a much-reduced line of Millers Falls hand tools. Once an industry leader in hand-powered boring tools, the company now offers 8 braces, 4 eggbeater drills, 2 push drills and a lone breast drill. Cover design is a rework of the previous catalog. At first glance, the cover is very similar to that of 1969, but it does, in fact, include a few line drawings not included on the 1969 cover.


Millers Falls Company catalog, 1971

Title from cover. Its hand tool section is, for the most part, a reprint of Hand Tools: Confidential Distributor Price List Effective May 1, 1971. Includes net, resale and list prices.


1972

Millers Falls Company catalog, 1973

Title from cover. A catalog of the company's general line. Lists fewer saw blades and power tool accessories than the previous edition. The pages featuring hand tool merchandising displays no longer appear. An almost identical version of the catalog that does not include prices was also published—no date appears on its cover.


Millers Falls Company catalog, 1971

Title from cover. A comprehensive catalog of the company's products, it includes industrial-grade tools.


1974

Millers Falls tool buyers guide, 1974

Title from cover. The Tool Group was the umbrella name for the Ingersoll-Rand hand tool companies—Union Tool, Proto, Challenger and Millers Falls. This buyer's guide is basically a Millers Falls catalog with fourteen pages of Union Tool precision tools appended. No prices.


Millers Falls re-distributor price list, 1974

Title from cover. Uncoated blue paper. Redistributor and list prices for Millers Falls hand tools and Union Tool precision tools for the 1975 year.

Shown as an example of price lists produced at the time. Other dates and versions exist.


1975

Millers Falls tools catalog cover, 1975 Millers Falls tools catalog back cover, 1975

Title from cover. Wonderful cover art makes this catalog a classic period piece. Inspired by the "hippie" style of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the front and rear covers depict such fantasies as a hacksaw cutting the top off a mountain, a tape measure that turns into a driveway, a router cutting a canal, and a combination-square bridge. The illustration is simply signed "Fisher" and attempts at further identifying the artist have come to naught. Former company president Jim Mitchell remembers staff in the Millers Falls office referring to the publication as the "Mickey Mouse catalog."


1976

Millers Falls hand tools catalog, 1976

Title from cover. Ingersoll-Rand abandoned the Tool Group concept in 1976. The Millers Company is now referred to as the Millers Falls Division of the Ingersoll-Rand Company. Amazingly, at this late date, the catalog still includes listings for three miter boxes. Jim Mitchell, company president at the time, recalls that the operation's miter boxes were among the most profitable of its hand-powered tools.


Millers Falls hand tools catalog, 1976

Title from cover. A version of the Millers Falls Division's 1976 hand tool catalog issued near the end of the year. Reflects minor changes in the line that have occurred since the June catalog.


Millers Falls distributor price list, 1976

Title from cover. Uncoated yellow paper. Wholesaler/industrial distributor net, resale and user prices for Millers Falls tools.

Shown as an example of price lists produced at the time. Other dates and versions exist.


1977

Millers Falls Company builders hand tools catalog, 1977

Title from cover. No electrical tools are included. This is the first of several catalogs that have virtually identical covers. Interestingly, the catalog includes a new hand drill, the No. 506121.


Millers Falls Company builders hand tools catalog, 1977

Title from cover. An easily missed variant. Title from cover. Contains 43 numbered pages, rather than thirty-nine. No electrical tools are included.


Millers Falls Company electric tools catalog, 1977

Title from cover. Includes hand drills, hammer drills, screwdrivers, circular saws, sabre saws, sanders, grinders, routers, metal shears, a portable bandsaw, and a soldering iron.


1978

Millers Falls Company builders hand tools catalog, 1978

Title from cover. An easily missed variant. Title from cover. At first glance appears identical to its predecessor but can identified by the notation 'Edition 3' on the right hand corner of the cover. By this time, most of the Millers Falls line of hand-powered tools were manufactured elsewhere and branded with the company name.


Millers Falls Company electric tools catalog, 1978

Title from cover. Includes hand drills, hammer drills, screwdrivers, circular saws, sabre saws, sanders, grinders, routers, metal shears, a portable bandsaw, and a soldering iron.


1979

Millers Falls Company builders hand tools catalog, 1979

Title from cover. An easily missed variant. Title from cover. At first glance appears identical to is predecessor. It contains 12 fewer pages, however, and can be identified by the notation 'Edition 4' on the right hand corner of the cover. A number of tools have been eliminated; few tools are identified as 'new'. Notable among these is a new bit brace, the No. 1910 (no relationship to the company's earlier 1910 M-S). Published after company headquarters were moved from Greenfield to South Deerfield, the catalog was the last produced during company president Jim Mitchell's tenure.


1980

Millers Falls Company electric tools catalog, 1980

Title from cover. An easily missed variant. Includes hand drills, hammer drills, rotary hammers, screwdrivers, reciprocating saws, circular saws, sabre saws, sanders, grinders, routers, metal shears, a portable bandsaw, and a soldering iron.


1981

Millers Falls Company hand tools catalog, 1981

Title from cover. By this time, the much reduced Millers Falls line of hand tools included 2 miter boxes, a hand drill, a breast drill, six braces, and six hand planes. Interestingly, a version of the so-called Buck Rogers hacksaw was still in production. The venerable No. 2 hand drill, renumbered the No. 2-01, is still offered (over a century after its  introduction). Two block planes dating to the time of the company's introduction of hand planes in 1929 remained available—a much-altered No. 56 and the No. 75 (renumbered 75-01).