History of E.C. Atkins & Co., Indianapolis, Indiana

E.C. Atkins plastering trowel

E.C. Atkins & Co. was a major saw and tool manufacturer in Indianapolis, Indiana. In 1952 it was purchased by Borg-Warner Corporation. The Indianapolis factory was closed in 1960-61 and its operations relocated to Greenville, Mississippi. Nicholson File Co. bought the Atkins Division of Borg Warner in 1966. Atkins had 14 major product lines which Nicholson quickly consolidated or eliminated.

From the 1890s through the mid-twentieth century, Atkins made plastering and cement finishing trowels. The 1910 advertisement shows a plastering trowel with a patent-applied-for movable handle. I have links to 3 E.C. Atkins publications under Vintage Trowel Catalog Downloads.

E.C. Atkins 1906 catalog