Mayhew
Punches, chisels and pry bars made in Turners Falls, Massachusetts since 1856
🇺🇸 American Manufacturing
Our assessment
Company details
Where Mayhew products are made
Two Massachusetts plants
Mayhew operates two manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts totalling 230,000 square feet and employing more than 300 people. The company says it keeps full control of production, from raw material through packaging, rather than farming steps out.
US-made core, imported complements
Mayhew states plainly that most of its tools are made in the US and that its imported tools exist to complement the US-made offerings. Its lifetime warranty is written to cover the US-made tools.
Its own tooling and patents
Mayhew has been patenting its own designs since the 1918 pin punch and the 1924 Solid Joint pliers. The Dominator® pry bar line is the modern flagship, and the company has absorbed the OldForge, Carica, Baltimore Toolworks and Bestway lines along the way.
Mayhew describes itself as a US-based, family-owned hand tool manufacturer and says that most of its tools are made in the US, with imported tools offered as complements to the American-made line. Because the catalog genuinely mixes the two, this profile carries an American Manufacturing label rather than a blanket Made in USA claim. One note on the founding date: Mayhew publishes two different years on its own site — the page titles read 1868, while the homepage and the history page both state 1856. This profile uses 1856, the year in the company’s own body copy. Check the individual listing if origin matters to you on a specific tool.
The story
The company traces its roots to 1856 in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, where it began as W.H. Maynard & Company. After several changes of ownership, H.H. Mayhew took the helm late in the century and gave the business the name it still carries. Early on it built a reputation for screwdrivers, punches and chisels that turned up in industrial catalogs across the country.
In 1915 the company reorganised as Mayhew Steel Products, Incorporated. The patents followed quickly — a knurled-grip pin punch in 1918, Solid Joint pliers in 1924 — and a parallel chapter arrived in 1939 when Mayhew acquired the Maydole Hammer Company, whose adze-eye hammer had been an American standard since 1840. During the Second World War the company produced 100,000 hammers for the US Navy.
J.W. Lawless started at Mayhew in the 1930s and was plant manager by the war. His family became partial owners in the 1950s, took controlling interest in 1962, and owned the company outright by the 1990s. Four generations later they still run it.
Today Mayhew is headquartered in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, ships worldwide through industrial distributors and big-box retail, and has widened its range through acquisitions — Ken-Tool’s OldForge and Carica brands in 2008, Baltimore Toolworks in 2009, Basque Plastics in 2016 and Bestway Tools in 2019.
Why they matter
Struck tools are the least glamorous corner of the hand tool business and one of the easiest to offshore. A punch or a cold chisel is a commodity to a purchasing department; the difference between one that mushrooms on the third hit and one that outlives its owner is heat treatment you cannot see in a photograph.
Mayhew matters because it kept that work in Massachusetts for 170 years while most of the American struck-tool industry left. Two plants, 300-plus people and full in-house control of production is not a marketing position — it is a standing cost the company has chosen to carry.
It also matters that Mayhew tells the truth about its catalog. Plenty of brands let a heritage story imply that everything in the box is American. Mayhew says out loud that most of its tools are US-made and the rest are imported complements, which is exactly the kind of disclosure that lets a buyer make an informed choice instead of a hopeful one.
Shop Mayhew products
Browse Mayhew punches, chisels and pry bars available now in the Buy American store.
Frequently asked questions
Where are Mayhew tools made?
At the company’s two Massachusetts facilities, headquartered in Turners Falls. Mayhew states that most of its tools are made in the US and that its imported tools are meant to complement the US-made line.
When was Mayhew founded?
1856, as W.H. Maynard & Company in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. H.H. Mayhew took over late in the 1800s and the business reorganised as Mayhew Steel Products in 1915. Note that Mayhew’s own page titles say 1868 while its homepage and history copy say 1856.
Is every Mayhew tool made in the USA?
No, and the company does not claim so. Mayhew says most of its tools are US-made and that imported tools complement the American-made offerings. Its lifetime warranty is written for the US-made tools, so check the specific item.
Who owns Mayhew?
The Lawless family, now in its fourth generation of ownership. They became partial owners in the 1950s, took controlling interest in 1962 and owned the company outright by the 1990s.