At the end of World War II, well-known entrepreneur and woodworking machinery designer Theron "Roy" Hedgpeth, who had worked for Portable Power Tool Corp. and Duro Metal Products Co., identified home-shop metalworking machines, especially sheet-metal machinery, as a promising market. He partnered with Richard L. Berkson and the two men designed a portfolio of inexpensive sheet metal machines. In 1947 they established Berkroy Products, Inc. in Oakland, California, to produce their designs. Berkson was president and Edward A. Bellezzo was hired as general manager; Bellezzo had extensive experience at Logan Engineering Co. and Duro Metal Products Co., where he presumably became known to Hedgpeth.

At a small pilot plant they began making and selling machinery. To their surprise, the vocational and small-professional-shop markets were most interested in their machines. With that early success they built a larger (12000 square feet) plant in Burbank. A 1951 article speaks glowingly of their robust designs and quality control processes, all aimed at producing products that would work well even in the hands of unskilled workers.

We have copies of a sales letter and envelope from this firm, dated March 1953. That is the latest evidence we can find of this company's existence.

Information Sources

• Ads in 1947 through 1949 issues of Popular Mechanics.
• Ad and brief editorial writeup in a 1948 issue of Western Fruit Grower from Berkroy Products, Inc., 2516 N. Ontario Street, Burbank, California, for a "one-man fence tightener".
• From a 1951 issue of Western Machinery and Steel World, an article we reconstructed as much as possible from Google Books' "snippet mode".

  NEW RESEARCH TOOLS
  Precision Equipment From a Southern California Manufacturer
  This is an account of how a plant built to further the activities of metal hobbyists captured the vocational school market and now furnishes tools in larger capacity for industry.

  (Photo captions:) Milling the ends of a box and pan frame on a Milwaukee. Upper left: Bank of Avey production drills working on brake. Upper right: Paragon turret forming small parts. Lower left: Forming adjusting screws on a Logan lathe. Lower right: Testing box and pan brake.

  Theron L. Hedgpeth, who was instrumental in pioneering power tools for the wood working hobbyists, knew that the metal hobbyist lacked professional equipment and felt that something should be done about it. Developing some new ideas in sheet metal forming with the cooperation of R. L. Berkson, they started Berkroy Products, Inc., in a pilot plant to manufacture these tools in 1947 in Oakland. The market was so receptive that a new building was erected in Burbank the next year, and its 12,000 square feet of floor space is now in full production.

  ... This line, by the way, will shortly be enlarged by the addition of a ring circle cutter of 24" capacity on 20-gage stock. This machine will also be distinguished by seven new features never before available.

  The president of Berkroy Products is R. L. Berkson, and E. A. Bellezzo is general manager. Ed Bellezzo has wide experience in the machine tool business, as he was for many years with Logan Engineering and Duro Metai Products of Chicago. Berkroy sheet metal tools are distributed nationally to dealers by Hed-Wick and Company of Chicago.

  ...needle bearings and there is a full (inch) clearance between top fingers and arr The assortment of fingers varying widths permits operations of almost any variable up to 24" capacity. The sketches show some of the folds and seams that are easily made.

  As shown in the illustrations, the box and pan brake and, in fact, all the Berkroy tools are made in this Burbank plant. The brake starts with the frame being milled on the 2HL Milwaukee. The bottom is milled first and using the surface for base, the top and two sides are milled. The fingers are accurately milled from special steel for perfect interchangability, drilled and tapped, then ready for assembly.

  Inspection on all Berkroy tools are probably as seeking and rigid as will be found in the industry, for, remember, many of these machines will be used by schoolboys and amateur hobbyists. There is never any telling what an unskilled worker will do with precision equipment. That is the reason so much thought has been built into the machines along with their ruggedness. So the same searching inspection given the smaller tools is...

• 1953 letter and envelope (see "Images" tab, above) that show the company was active in March 1953.
• The California Secretary of State business registry database does not contain any information on this company.
• Findagrave.com page on Richard Lobdell Berkson (1909-1993).
• A page on a house formerly owned by Theron Hedgpeth provides some useful background on him.