History of Peterson Tool Company: Chapter I

In 1959, John L. Peterson, Sr., started Peterson Tool Company with a $500 loan in an old chicken barn. At the time, his fifth child was on the way. Grinding HSS step drills and reamers was his specialty and he branched out into form tools for the screw machine industry. He sold tools during the day and ground them at night. During the escalation of the Vietnam War in 1964, the inserted form tool later to be called Thriftedge® was born. A customer approached Mr. Peterson with a problem common to many at the time. He needed more production out of the machines he had since he could not get new machines delivered for 18 months. Production of military ordinance was extremely high and continuing to climb. Mr. Peterson proposed the idea of replaceable cutting edges for dovetail form tools and Thriftedge® took off. Thriftedge has evolved considerably since that day as has Peterson Tool Company. To the right are old photos of the buildings we once occupied and some generation II Thriftedge tools.