The 199 has barely changed in over 70 years. Most notable is the retractable-blade variant much loved by football hooligans

History will record that one of the great ironies of the 21st Century was that the richest, most powerful and heavily defended nation on our planet, surrounded by billions of dollars’ worth of missiles and long-range radars, was penetrated by an invading force armed with nothing more than Stanley knives. With these simple tools, designed for cutting carpet or cardboard, they hijacked the planes that ploughed into the Twin Towers, provoking a ‘war on terror’ that has killed hundreds of thousands and is still being waged.
 
Even the most dedicated craft worker could barely have imagined the potential for destruction locked up in one of the most ubiquitous and humble of hand tools.

The Stanleys were an industrious bunch, settled in the heart of America’s rapidly industrialising north, where, in 1843 in New Britain, Connecticut, 41-year-old Frederick Trent Stanley and his younger brother William established ‘Stanley’s Bolt Manufactory’. The business, making door bolts and assorted ironmongery, ticked along comfortably, helped by the purchase of the first steam engine in the state to power the machinery, and in 1853 the company was incorporated as The Stanley Works.  Perhaps inspired by their cousins’ success, another brace of brothers in another branch of the family embarked in 1857 on a quite separate manufacturing venture, the Stanley Rule and Level Company – no need to guess what they made.

Both companies were innovative and acquisitive from the start, developing new production methods, new products and new ways of selling them. The Stanley Works was the first manufacturer to supply hinges labelled and boxed with the appropriate fixing screws. They also took full advantage of the rapidly expanding railroad system to distribute across America, and they were adept at spotting a good idea from rival concerns. In true capitalist tradition, if they liked it enough, they bought the company.

Over the years these acquisitions produced innovative products such as the ‘Bailey’ iron plane, the ‘Surform’ rasp, the ‘Posi-Lock’ tape measure, the ‘Yankee’ spiral screwdriver and, by way of a change, the first photo-electric cell-operated automatic doors.

By 1920 the wisdom of merging the two ‘Stanleys’ became irresistible, and the Hand Tool Division of the Stanley Works was created.  The company continued to expand domestically and internationally, opening a factory in Britain in 1937, in Sheffield.

Stanley’s reputation was built on producing first-class tools for the craftsman, but the product that turned the company into a household name was one of its most humble, the ‘199’ knife. Introduced in 1936, it was not only the prototype for all subsequent craft knives but its ubiquity established Stanley as the generic name by which craft knives are known in much of the world.  Although, curiously, not so in America, where all brands are known as ‘box knives’.

Simple in concept and construction, the 199 consists of a two-piece cast-aluminium handle, the halves of which are held together with a single screw, broadly slotted so that it can be removed and tightened with the edge of a coin. The handle is hollow and the blade, and spares, can be stored inside for both the convenience and safety of the user (most people soon lose the small triangular metal widget supplied to protect the blade).

The 199 has barely changed in over 70 years of production but has spawned many siblings, from Stanley Tools as well as countless rivals. Most notable is the retractable-blade variant much loved by football hooligans. Ordinary law-abiding citizens simply appreciate the fact that by depressing a thumb-lever set in the handle the blade can be retracted out of harm’s way without dismantling.

Stanley remains a world leader in hand tools but the company that started by making door bolts remains faithful to its roots, with a significant presence in the mechanical and electronic security industry – locks and stuff.