Astle Tool Co. of Annandale, NJ, and Union Steel Tool Co., Plainfield, NJ

Iron Trade Review, Vol. 47, 1910

Steel, Vol. 48, 1911

Astle Tool Co. of Annandale, New Jersey and Union Tool Steel Co., Plainfield, NJ were connected by the same tool maker. George W. Astle was born 10 Oct., 1861, in New Jersey, and died in 1941. Astle was trained as a blacksmith by his father, James T. Astle. George Astle made a brick trowel, mill picks, facing hammers, and other tools for stone. He worked in Annandale in Hunterdon County up to 1910, when he joined with businessmen Thomas F. Budlong and Ellsworth P. Baylor to form Union Steel Co., also called Union Steel Tool Co., with offices in nearby Plainfield, Union County, NJ. Apparently the business was short-lived or was bought by another tool maker, because no advertisements or articles appear after 1911. Union Tool Steel Co. is not listed in the 1912 Plainfield directory.

There is more information about George W. Astle in the book, Early Tools of New Jersey and the Men Who Made Them, by Alexander Farnham. Astle's brick trowel is pictured on page 65. It is deeply stamped G. W. ASTLE ANNANDALE, N.J. U.S.A. An 1886 panoramic map of Annandale shows James T. Astle's shop.

G.W. Astle mill pick head