Keen Kutter Files by Simmons and Shapleigh Hardware Companies

Shapleigh's Keen Kutter file box

Keen Kutter was the leading brand name of E.C. Simmons Hardware of St. Louis, Missouri. In 1940 Shapleigh Hardware, also of St. Louis, took over Simmons and continued the Keen Kutter brand name. We do not know which American file maker produced Keen Kutter files, but all Keen Kutter items and their boxes are very collectible. Earlier Keen Kutter files came in wood boxes with sliding lids, and later ones in conventional cardboard boxes.

The files section from Simmons Keen Kutter Catalog No. 776 is listed in American File Manufacturer Catalogs.

Woodworkers Review 1909

Photo by Gary S.

E.C. Simmons Keen Kutter file box

Early Simmons Keen Kutter wooden file box label 

McClellan File Co. of Saginaw MI

McClellan file, photo by Gary S. 

McClellan File Co. of Saginaw, Michigan is best known as a secondary brand of Nicholson File Co., which bought McClellan in 1897-1898 during a wave of consolidation in the American file industry.

Little is known so far about the history of this company before 1898. In 1883 it was operating as Michigan Saw & File Works, with William McClellan as vice president and John J. McClellan as foreman. By 1889, the business was named McClellan File Co., located at 133 S. Water St., Saginaw, with principals William McClellan and Andrew Johnson.

Modern Machinery, Vol 3-4, 1898