Johnston Companies
Home
Home
Home

The E. T. Lufkin Board and Log Rule Manufacturing Company started in Cleveland, Ohio in 1869 to serve the logging industry. Lufkin produced rules of superior quality, using only the best materials, and the company flourished, gaining a substantial following of loyal customers. The company soon moved to Saginaw, Michigan, which at the time was the center of the logging industry as settlement of the young United States moved relentlessly westward.

Innovation is the key to success for every enterprise, and that was certainly the case for Lufkin, when, in 1890, Lufkin introduced the first steel measuring tape produced in the United States. Numerous innovative products were introduced in the following years, the most successful being the folding wooden rule. The folding rule remained the dominant measuring tool for tradespeople of all types until the 1940s when Lufkin, along with several other manufacturers, made the retractable tape measure a reality.

Today, as Crescent Lufkin®, the brand is a market leader for measuring products from Apex Tool Group, one of the largest hand tool manufacturers in the world.  The extensive Crescent Lufkin line of products includes power tapes, rules, long tapes, oil gauging tapes, measuring wheels, and one of the widest selections of special-purpose tapes and rules available for commercial and industrial use. Crescent Lufkin measuring products are among the more than 2,600 quality hand tool products offered under the Crescent name – products professional tradespeople know they can count on to get the job done right.

Johnston Companies is a full service distributor of industrial and MRO products.  We are a woman-owned small business, with separate divisions specializing in aerospace, manufacturing, and government services, providing a full range of parts and products to our industrial customers.  Through our website, email, phone or fax, our customers have access to a breadth of items: cutting tools, safety products, abrasives, storage units, hand tools, measuring tools and more. Most stock items ship the same day as ordered from our warehouses across Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.