Pilliod Machinist's Tool Chest

I recently had the VERY good fortune to have an acquaintance "give" me a machinist's tool chest and tools that were his grandfather's.  He says that his grandfather was a machinist in Detroit, but that is all he knows.

The chest is marked "Pilliod Company, Swanton, Ohio" in gold lettering on the front of the bottom drawer. The chest is oak.  The finish appears to be original and is in very good condition. It had a leather handle on top that is almost completely worn away.  The chest has 5 drawers of varying sizes with green felt liners, and the entire chest has a removable wooden front with a lock.  The lock and key still work.  It also sits on a base, but I do not think that the base is original.  It appears to be poplar and pine and not oak.   A couple of the drawers have some separation/cracking at the joints, but I can fix those fairly easily.

The chest is "full" of L.S. Starrett tools.   The tools are in very good condition, but have obviously been well used and taken care of for many years.

My acquaintance says that he was told that the chest dates about 1915, but has no way of knowing.

Does anyone know anything about Pilliod?  I looked in the archive for the OldTools mailing list, and an email to the OldTools list in 1998 from Chris Berger had the following information about Pilliod:

"The letterhead contained the following:

Established 1896
THE PILLIOD CABINET COMPANY
Furniture Manufacturers
Swantown, Ohio  43558
Telephone 419-826-3540
(I tried this phone # for the heck of it and it is no longer in service)

The envelope also was stamped:

THE PILLIOD CABINET COMPANY
Pilliod of Alabama, Inc.
Pilliod of Carolina, Inc.
105 - 117 Woodland Ave.
Swantown, Ohio"

Not much else about this company seems to have been discussed on OldTools.

If anyone has any other information, please let me know.  I will post whatever I find about this company to the blog for others that may be looking for this company in the future.

Thanks for the help!

Above photo is the chest with the front cover open.

Cover closed (lock still works)

Logo on front of bottom drawer

Tools contained in drawer #3

#2

#1

#4

#5

Comments

[Karl]

Wow! That is quite a nice addition to the shop. A quick search on the manufacturer yielded this:

"In January 1994, LADD acquired the Pilliod Cabinet Co., a High Point-based manufacturer of promotional-priced bedroom and occasional furniture, in a transaction valued at $54 million. The company, which was renamed Pilliod Furniture, Inc. following the acquisition, had annual sales of more than $85 million and factories in Ohio, Alabama, and South Carolina."

I also turned up an EPA report that cited the company for an infraction in 1994 and fined them $17k.

This is probably not the detail you were looking for, but it does show that the company existed as little as 13 years ago.

Cheers!

[JOE]

I USED TO LIVE IN SWANTON OHIO..AND WORKED FOR THEM FOR 17 YEARS.... PILLIOD IS AN OLD FAMILY NAME IN SWANTON AND WAS ONE OF THE BIG EMPLOYERS.
LOCALS USED TO CALL IT THE "BOX COMPANY" DUE TO BOXS THEY MADE, LIKE YOU HAVE, SILVERWARE CHESTS AND BOXS FOR MEDALS DURING THE WAR EFFORT... I WAS TOLD THEY USED TO MAKE KITES AS WELL... THEY ARE LONG GONE...THEY HAD BECOME A POWER HOUSE IN FURNITURE. THROUGH MANY BUY OUTS AND THUS QUESTIONABLE MANAGEMENT, THEY ARE GONE.....MY MOTHER HAD ONE OF THE SILVERWARE BOXS

[msanfilippo]

Thanks for the info!!!

Matt

[Andy Evridge]

At one time, Pilliod also manufactured a proprietary design of valve gear, called Baker, for steam locomotives. Some of this product would have been shipped to the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima.