ron hickman's Original workmate

Mate Tools Ltd.—The Workmate Before Black & Decker

I've mostly stayed away from writing about the early history of the Workmate since it is covered well elsewhere, including a full chapter in The Workbench Book by Scott Landis. However, in my research I've compiled some material that I don't think has been generally available before, so I present it here as further documentation of that history.

The quick background: When Ron Hickman developed the Workmate in England in the 1960's, he could not interest the major British tool companies in manufacturing it. Convinced of its potential, he set up his own company, Mate Tools, Ltd. in Hoddeston, Hertfordshire, to manufacture and sell it himself. In 1968, a British magazine agreed to let him use a corner of their booth at a handycrafts and DIY show to demonstrate and promote his invention. The Workmate took off from there.​

I have separate web pages where I show and explain the details of both the original Mate Tools Workmate and the nearly identical Black & Decker Workmate 125 that followed it, both of which had only a single, 23"-tall, sawhorse height setting. This version of the Workmate is now often referred to retrospectively as the "Mk. I", but at the time it was sold by Mate Tools it had no model number; it was simply the Workmate.

In this blog post I document the earliest days of the Mate Tools Workmate via numerous newspaper appearances that I found significant.

First up is probably the very first appearance of the Workmate in print, from the London Daily Mirror of August 31, 1968. It's just a single paragraph that I have excerpted from their report on the 1968 Do-It-Yourself Exhibition at Olympia, the show where the Workmate made its debut the previous day.

Daily Mirror, August 31, 1968

Next is a report from a regular feature entitled "Shopping" in The Birmingham Post two days later on September 2, 1968. This doesn't mention the Olympia show, but almost certainly was a result of the show. The price shown would equate to about $39 dollars in 1968. This is probably the first published photograph of the Workmate.

Birmingham Post, September 2, 1968

One week later, on September 9, 1968, the Coventry Evening Telegraph had a lengthier article, with perhaps the earliest recounting of Hickman's story about the accident that inspired him to create the Workmate. You have to strain to read this one due to a poor scan.

Coventry Evening Telegraph, September 9, 1968

By June 21, 1969, Hickman was running newspaper ads, such as this one from the Daily Telegraph.  Notice that Hickman was already working on marketing strategy with "Easy terms available. 12 months guarantee." 

Daily Telegraph, June 21, 1969

After the next Do-It-Yourself Exhibition in 1969, the Workmate got more positive press such as this from The Observer on September 7, 1969.

The Observer, September 7, 1969

By the time of the following ad in The Observer from February 1, 1970, Hickman had added the triangle in the upper right of the ad, the symbol of the Design Centre of London. This touts the fact that the Workmate had been selected by the Council of Industrial Design as a product that represented the best of British design.

The Observer, February 1, 1970

By March 16, 1970, the first mention of the taller Team-mate accessory bench shows up in this article from the Coventry Evening Telegraph, but with no photos of it.

Coventry Evening Telegraph, March 16, 1970

Yet another favorable review of the Workmate appeared in The Guardian on March 18, 1970. The "CoID Index" mentioned in the second paragraph refers to the Council of Industrial Design award described above.

The Guardian, March 18, 1970

​By the end of 1970 Ron Hickman had managed to place the Workmate into retail stores such as Gamages, a London department store well known for its tool department. The Gamages ad below is from The Guardian on December 7, 1970. The price had increased by a pound, and it now offered a "FIVE YEARS' GUARANTEE".

The Guardian, December 7, 1970

The Observer on March 28, 1971 shows Hickman still running his own ads and still selling direct to customers. Notice the statement "Thousands now sold but NOT ONE UNIT returned under our complete money-back guarantee".

The Observer, March 28, 1971

The last ad I found from Mate Tools for the Workmate is this one from the Daily Telegraph on September 11, 1971. It's striking how much more modern, uncluttered, and professional the ad is. Notice at the bottom the new logo and the catch phrase "A WORKSHOP IN A PACKAGE".

Daily Telegraph, September 11, 1971

It was in 1971 that Hickman finally reached a deal allowing Black & Decker to license the manufacturing rights from him. At the same time, he was working on the design of the more versatile dual-height model we are familiar with today. Mate Tools continued manufacturing the original Workmate with only minor changes into 1972, supplying them directly to Black & Decker who began selling them under their own name. Black & Decker gave it an official model number for the first time, the WM125, although many today still refer to the WM125 as the "Mk. I". The model number WM125 was never used in any of the newspaper ads that I have found, but it did appear on a label on the Workmate itself. As far as I can tell, Black & Decker never sold the Team-Mate accessory bench.

​There is some confusion about the name of the model developed specifically for Black & Decker that followed. ​During development of the dual-height model, Hickman himself referred to it as the Workmate Mk. II, or sometimes Mark 2. That model was brought to market by Black & Decker in late 1972, and I have found a couple of newspaper articles of the time that referred to it at its introduction as the Mark 2. However, the actual name chosen for it continued the pattern of the WM125 name used for the first model—WM225 for the new single-height model and WM325 for the dual-height model. It was never actually sold as the Mark 2.

The WM125 was then discontinued. Black & Decker took over all manufacturing of the WM225 and WM325 at their factory in Spennymoor, and Mate Tools ceased production of Workmates. I have found later newspaper ads showing that Mate Tools continued as a retailer of various tools made by others until at least 1975.