The Mall Tool Co. was supposedly founded in 1921 by Arthur W. Mall, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; a year later he relocated the business to Chicago, the city where he grew up.

In July of 1925 The Mall Tool Company was incorporated with $25,000 in capital by Arthur W. Mall (president), A. L. Heald (position in the company unknown; Allen L. Heald was married to A. W. Mall's older sister Harriet), and Ralph M. Gaston (factory manager). The new business was "to manufacture and deal in tools, dies and patterns". In October of the following year they announced their "high-frequency portable tools", a line of portable electric rotary sander-grinders. More products soon followed, included electric drills, flexible-shaft tools, and, later, gas-powered and pneumatic tools as well.

The company became very successful and by 1954 employed over 2,000 people making power drills, circular saws, chainsaws, and other handheld products. Mall also made a "MallSaw Radial Saw Arm", which converted a handheld circular saw to a small radial arm saw. They also put their name on a bench grinder. The bench grinders are uncommon. Guide-Master was a Mall home workshop brand c. 1952.

The Electric Mall Plane was designed by Ray L. Carter, an important designer and manufacturer of handheld power tools and stationary sanding and routing machines. We do not know how Carter's power planer came to be manufactured by Mall.

In 1956, Mall Tool Co. was acquired by Remington Arms Corp. and renamed the Remington Power Tool Division. At the time, DuPont Corporation was the parent company of Remington, having acquired it during The Great Depression. Remington was reportedly only interested in the chainsaw portion of the business, though they continued to manufacture Mall's popular line of flexible-shaft grinders. There is some suggestion that Mall's electric power tool line was sold at some point during the 1960s but we have not been able to confirm this.

By 1969 Remington was in financial difficulty and the tool division was acquired by DESA Industries, a small conglomerate that specialized in distressed businesses. The Remington line of chainsaws continued to sell well, many of them through Montgomery Ward and John Deere. In 1970 the line of air tools were sold to Colt Industries. In 1975 the remnants of Mall were acquired by AMCA International Corp., which organized it as the DESA Industries Division. It appears that the Mall power tools and stationary machines were long gone by then. Parts and service for Mall Tool products are no longer available. The only exception we are aware of is the Mall fiexible-shaft grinder that as of 2022 is till being manufactured by Terrco Inc.

Information Sources

• Considerable research has failed to turn up any direct evidence of the pre-1925 existence of Mall Tool Co., but what little indirect evidence exists is not inconsistent with the story given here, which is found in virtually every biography of A. W. Mall or his company.
• 1919 Wisconsin State Gazetteer and Business Directory has no listings under Milwaukee for anyone with the surname Mall.
• 1921-22 Wisconsin State Gazetteer and Business Directory has no listings under Milwaukee for anyone with the surname Mall.
• July 1925 The Metal Industry, in their "News of the Industry" column, Chicago section.

  Mall Tool Company, 7159 Stoney Island avenue, Chicago, incorporated for $25,000 to manufacture and deal in tools, dies and patterns. Arthur Mall, A. L. Heald, R. M. Gaston, incorporators.

• 1925-07-11 Manufacturers News, in a list of new incorporations.

  Mall Tool Company, 7159 Stoney Island Ave., $25,000; Arthur W. Mall, A. L. Heald, R. M. Gaston. Cor., Krauss, Goldman & Allshouse, 5 S. Wabash Ave.

• December 1925 Journal of the Society of Automotive Engineers.

  Ralph M. Gaston has accepted a position as factory manager for the Mall Tool Co., Chicago. Prior to this he was production engineer for the Continental Oil Burner Corporation, Chicago.

• October 1926 Machinery has a brief illustrated article on "Mall high-frequency portable tools" from Mall Tool Co., 8389 S. Chicago Ave., Chicago, Ill., for grinding, automobile-body surfacing, sanding, and similar operations".
• 1928-03-22 Iron Trade Review (vol. 82, p. 795). "CHICAGO-Mall Tool Co., 7740 South Chicago avenue, A. W. Mall, president, will build a 1 and 2-story plant."
• 1954 genealogy book Ancestry Mall, by Daniel Mall, Lydia Mall Gates, Jesse M. Mall. The following has had preceding and following paragraphs removed which were content-free filler.

  A Life Sketch of Arthur W. Mall, by Jane Mall

  ...Arthur Mall was born on August 15, 1895 in Hammond, Indiana. When he was two years old the family moved to the south east side of Chicago where he has lived all of his life. At the age of six years he sold newspapers on the streets of south Chicago until the time he entered high school. Besides his studies in high school he found the time and ambition to work at part time jobs after school.

  Upon graduation from high school he went to work. Arthur Mall didn't have the opportunity to go to college, but in the course of his life, he found the time to study and acquire the knowledge he knew he both desired and needed. He attended Steven's Institute in Hoboken, Armour Institute in Chicago and passed the severe examination for Officer Candidate School in the United States Navy. He has the equivalent of a college degree in Mechanical Engineering.

  In 1916 Arthur Mall answered this country's call and entered the United States Navy. He served as an officer of the Navy until 1918 when he was discharged as an Ensign.

  Arthur W. Mall started the Mall Tool Company on January 1, 1921, in Milwaukee, Wisc., with a capital of less than $200.00. One year later the company was moved to the south side of Chicago where it stands today.

  The first product of the Mall Tool Company was a pneumatic sanding and polishing wheel which requires a portable power tool to revolve, and thus the Mall Tool Company started to make various kinds of portable power tools, the product which they now make and for which they are known throughout the world. From this first product they went to making gas engines, then to electric and then to gas self-contained engines and then to pneumatic power tools of all types.

  The Mall Tool Company now employs over 2,000 people, with forty branch warehouse stores on their own property in cities in the U. S. and Canada. The Mall Power Tool product is sold and used throughout the world. The factory and home offices in the South Chicago area cover an area of ten acres...

  On page 194 of this book we see that Arthur Mall's older sister Harriet (born 5/1893) married one Allen L. Heald. A. L. Heald was one of the 1925 incorporators of the Mall Tool Co.
• Address (1950 Popular Mechanics): 7805 South Chicago Ave, Chicago 19, Illinois.
• Chicago Sunday Tribune 1959-10-04.

  Arthur Mall, Tool Company Founder, Dies
  Began Manufacturing in Garage

  Arthur W. Mall, 2321 Vardon lane, Flossmoor, who began a tool company in Milwaukee in 1921 and sold it for 10 million dollars three years ago, died Saturday in Ingalls Memorial Hospital, Harvey.

  Mall was the founder of the Mall Tool company. He sold it in June, 1956, to the Remington Arms Co., Inc. Since then, he had been operating a smaller firm, the Crete Equipment company, in Crete.

  Started in Milwaukee
  Mall, a former newsboy in South Chicago, got his start in Milwaukee and moved his tool making operation to a garage at 72d street and Stony Island avenue in Chicago the next year.

  His success there led to the formation of the Mall Tool company at 7740 South Chicago av., a firm that grew on an output of flexible shafts for power tools, concrete vibrators, and pneumatic tools.

  In World War II, Malls electric power saws were used extensively on Pacific islands to fell trees for airstrips.

  Mall is survived by his widow, Florence B.; one son, Calvin; one daughter, Diane; and two sisters.

• The following history is taken from a no-longer-available history page at the DESA Industries web site.

  Mall Tool Co. was founded in the 1920s and specialized in gasoline and electrically powered hand tools. They were acquired by Remington Arms Corp. in 1956, and renamed the Remington Power Tool Division. 1969, some entrepreneurs purchased the Power Tool Division and named the company DESA Industries. They were acquired by AMCA (Master Consolidated) in 1975.

• A 1964 lawsuit, WEN v. Portable Electric Tools, revealed a couple of interesting tidbits about Mall Tool Co. In the Court of Appeals transcript it says, "Q: Does it still operate under the name Duwell? A: Under Aero Metal Products. As a matter of fact, I think they supplied most of the accessories, including jig saws, for the Mall Tool Company, which, of course, is now defunct. They were bought out by Remington and then they sold out their electric tool business."
• For another history of the Mall Tool Co., see this biography of Arthur Mall on a now-defunct genealogy site for the Mall family.
• Cases in Competitive Strategy, a 1983 book by Michael E. Porter, has a useful few paragraphs on the Desa Industries portion of the company history.