ROCKFORD — Estwing Manufacturing Co. — the maker of hammers, axes and pry bars among other striking tools — is planning a $10 million expansion of its Eighth Street facility that would keep 296 ...

Estwing was founded by Swedish immigrant Ernest O. Estwing nearly a century a go. Ernest had a talent for forging hammers from one solid piece of hardened steel and the rest as they say is history.

Estwing Manufacturing Co., one of the nation’s top makers of high-quality hammers, axes, chisels, claw hammers and pry bars, announced this afternoon that it is cutting 37 jobs because of the national ...