low-lying c. 1940's vintage american industrial four-legged factory machinist stool designed and fabricated by the lyon metallic mfg. co., aurora, il. the pressed and folded steel work stool retains the original baked olive green enameled finish. salvaged from the sherman-klove company factory, defiance, oh. the sk hand tools corp. was founded as the sherman-klove company, specializing in screw-machine products, by mason h. sherman and roger klove. the company was founded in the early 1900's to supply munitions in wwi, and made mortar housings in a screw machine plant on harrison street in chicago. during the 1920's sk operated primarily as a contract company, making tools for other companies including craftsman (tools). they made specialty screw machine products that did well until the depression. william s. sherman (w.s.), mason's son, came to sk after graduating college in 1927 and was eventually a major owner of the company. one of the products the company made was socket wrenches for hinsdale socket and wrench company. the hinsdale company went out of business during the great depression leaving sherman-klove with a large inventory of this product, they then redesigned the product and changed the company name to s-k tools. theodore rueb, an engineer for the sherman-klove company, went on to developed a new mechanism for a very successful line of ratchets, scaled from 1/4-drive up to 3/4-drive. the "round-head" ratchet has remained one of the most popular ratchet styles in the seven decades since s-k's first development, and many modern ratchets are little changed from the earliest design. sk invented and received a patent for the round head ratchet wrench, which remains a mainstay of their, and every major competitor's product line today. seat height measures 25 1/2 inches.