E. T. Lufkin Board & Log Rule Mtg.

The history of the Lufkin folding ruler began in 1869 when Edward Taylor Lufkin founded the E. T. Lufkin Board and Log Rule Manufacturing Company in Cleveland, Ohio.  The firm transitioned into the Lufkin Rule Company in 1885. It pioneered measuring equipment with the iconic wooden folding rule being patented in 1919.

The company first made specialized log rules to measure timber for the logging industry.  Lufkin produced rules of superior quality, using only the best materials.  The company flourished, gaining a substantial following of loyal customers.  The company soon moved to Saginaw, Michigan in 1895 which at the time was the center of the logging industry.

The Lufkin Rule Company 

Saginaw, Michigan

Circa 1918

The folding rule remained the dominant measuring tool for tradespeople of all types until the 1940s when Lufkin, along with several other manufacturers made the retractable tape measure a reality.

Lufkin Tape Measure

Vintage Lufkin No. 372 Boxwood Brass Folding 12 Inch Rule with Caliper

In 1951, Lufkin decided to locate operations near the best source of raw materials for their products so they purchased the Anson Stick Company in North Anson, Maine.  The hard maple harvested in Maine's northern forests was considered superior and by the mid-1960s, Lufkin had consolidated all wooden rule manufacturing operations there.

Long Ago and Far Away

The history of hardwood rule manufacturing at Sknowhegan Wooden Rule Co. Inc. began long before 1999.  It all started in 1869 with E. T. Lufkin. In 1967, Cooper Industries purchased the Lufkin Company and added it to the Cooper Hand Tools Division.  Cooper sold folding wooden rules as mass market items though viewed the original E T. Lufkin product line as the industry's standard.  By 1998, Cooper had moved their main facility to Apex, North Carolina. Eventually, Cooper sold the Anson plant and discontinued Lufkin's original lines.

The Meisner Family Era Begins

The Meisner family purchased the Anson plant from Cooper Industries in 1999.  Included in the sale was all of the equipment and the process instructions required to produce the discontinued Lufkin roducts.  On the day the sale was finalized and in the weeks tht followed, a number of distributors and industrial customers contacted the Meisner family.  They asked them to continue manufacturing the Lufkin rules.  Demand appeared small, but consistent.  The Meisner family decided to gradually rebuild rule manufacturing and the Sknowhegan Wooden Rule Co. Inc. was formed to promote and market these products.  Since 1999 they have been able to re-employ some of the skilled local workers who had spent generations crafting these products. They have completely rebuilt and refined the rule manufacturing process and have not relaxed any of the standards that made E. T. Lufkin's orginal rules so desirable.  The maple is still the finest quality produced in Maine's western mountains with each piece still hand selected and inspected.  The fittings and fasteners are still all solid brass and the markings are engraved into the wood (not printed on it) and blackened by hand to last a lifetime. 

Each rule is carefully finished to bring out the beauty and personality of the wood.  

The Meisner family think E. T. Lufkin would be proud.