Wilde Tool

Wilde Tool has made pliers since 1922, first as the Wilde Drop Forge and Tool Company in Kansas City and, after the Great Flood of 1951 pushed it out of its plant where the Kansas and Missouri rivers meet, in a forge and machine shop in Hiawatha, Kansas that opened in 1955. The company was granted the 1931 patent for the original angle-nose pliers, a 32-degree bend in the nose that is now a standard design, and it is still run by the Froeschl family, now in its fourth generation.

Most of what leaves Hiawatha does not carry the Wilde name. The company says 65 to 80 percent of its sales go out under the private labels of other national tool companies and mass merchants. The rest is sold under its own name, direct and through farm-and-home dealers.

The claim is broad and specific. The FAQ says every tool Wilde manufactures is made in the United States, and the 2025 catalogue says every hand tool in it is manufactured and assembled in the U.S.A. It marks the Hiawatha-made items in bold and says the rest are also manufactured in the U.S.A. An independent tool-history reference puts the company in Hiawatha since 1955, and the brand was hiring production workers in September 2026.

The listed products are pliers, which are on Wilde’s own list of the tools it makes. The screwdrivers, mirrors, magnets and other service tools in the shop are not on that list. The catalogue still says they are made in the U.S.A., but not that they are made in Hiawatha.