|
Billy -- Indestro was a brand name used by Duro Metal Products Company of Chicago, Illinois. Duro Metal Products was a well-named company, as they made many, many different types of metal products, including office furnishings, bottle cappers, woodworking power tools, and hand tools. Duro produced at least 3 different lines of Indestro tools -- Indestro, Indestro Classic, Indestro Super -- ranging from low-price-and-strength stamped sheet steel wrenches to what we would call today "professional quality" tools forged from alloy steel. In the 1950's through the 1970's, Duro Metal Products made and marketed hand tools under their own Indestro and Duro-Chrome lines, but they made private-label tools for a whole slew of other marketers, including Fairmount Forge, W. T. Grant, True Value Hardware, Western Auto, and Montgomery Ward. (It's worth noting that Montgomery Ward seemingly flitted from vendor to vendor for their mechanics' tools, going from Duro Metal to Wright to Thorsen in about a decade.) Duro Metal Products fell onto hard times in the 1980's, and in their last days they sold a fair number of wrenches to the US Government stamped with a single Duro-Indestro branding . . . or maybe it was Indestro-Duro, I forget. I don't think I've seen any of the Duro Metal tool lines featured in an auto-parts or hardware store in the last twenty years. John
|
