Hex keys and fold-up tools made in Franklin Park, Illinois since 1923
✅ Made in USA
Where Eklind Tool products are made
Franklin Park, Illinois
Eklind Tool Company operates from 11040 King Street in Franklin Park, Illinois, in the industrial belt west of Chicago. The company publishes a factory tour on its own site alongside a dedicated Made in U.S.A. page.
Hex, ball-hex and TORX
The product range covers L-key, T-key, screwdriver and fold-up tools with hex, ball-hex, TORX and tamper-resistant tips, sold to professional and consumer users through distribution in the United States and worldwide.
The fold-up specialty
Eklind manufactured its first fold-up hex key sets in 1955, and the company says it dominates that segment of the market to this day.
Eklind is unusually direct about origin, and unusually direct about counterfeits. The company’s own site states that its tools are “made with pride in the United States,” and it maintains a dedicated Made in U.S.A. page and a factory tour rather than burying the claim in marketing copy. Eklind also publishes an authenticity test any buyer can run: every genuine part or assembly carries an embossed “Eklind” stamp, and the company states plainly that if you do not see that stamp, Eklind did not manufacture the part. It asks buyers who suspect a counterfeit to contact the company directly.
The story
Eklind Tool was founded in 1923 in Chicago, Illinois by Swedish immigrants Henning and Ruth Eklind. It began as a contract manufacturer doing tool and die work — not a brand at all, but a shop that made things for other people.
The company survived the Great Depression, which ran through 1939, and came out the other side of the Second World War looking for consumer products. Its first was not a tool: in 1946 Eklind began producing an after-market emergency brake signal light for automobiles.
The turn came in 1948, when Henning Eklind designed the company’s first hex key. In 1951, after service in the United States Army, Howard Eklind began his career at the company and went on to lead it until his retirement in 2005.
In 1955 Eklind manufactured its first fold-up hex key sets — a segment the company says it has dominated ever since. A century after its founding, Eklind Tool still makes hex keys in Illinois, and still stamps its name into every part it builds.
Why they matter
Hand tools are one of the categories where American production quietly collapsed. Hex keys in particular are close to a commodity: cheap to make overseas, sold by weight in blister packs, and rarely bought on the strength of a brand name.
Eklind Tool is the counter-example, and it has been one for a hundred years. Being a century-old family manufacturer of a commodity item means it has survived the Depression, two waves of offshoring and the collapse of most of its domestic competition without moving production.
The counterfeit warning on Eklind’s own site is the tell. A company only publishes an authenticity test when its name is worth copying — and the test it offers, an embossed stamp on every part, is the kind of thing you can only promise when you control the factory.
Featured products
Browse Eklind Tool hex keys, fold-up sets and hand tools available through the Buy American Campaign store.
Frequently asked questions
Where are Eklind Tool hex keys made?
In the United States. Eklind Tool Company is based at 11040 King Street in Franklin Park, Illinois, and states that its tools are made with pride in the United States.
How old is Eklind Tool?
The company was founded in 1923 in Chicago by Swedish immigrants Henning and Ruth Eklind, making it more than a century old.
How can I tell a genuine Eklind tool?
Eklind states that every genuine part or assembly carries an embossed “Eklind” stamp. If a part is not stamped, the company says it did not manufacture it, and asks buyers to report suspected counterfeits.
What does Eklind Tool make?
L-key, T-key, screwdriver and fold-up tools with hex, ball-hex, TORX and tamper-resistant tips. The company manufactured its first fold-up hex key sets in 1955.