From Esquire.com:
The Robertson Screwdriver
Canadians will be celebrating an important anniversary this year, and like most of our anniversaries, we’ll be celebrating it largely alone. A century ago, a traveling salesman named Peter L. Robertson invented a new kind of screwdriver — and its companion screw — so prompted after he sliced himself silly with a flathead. Today, his namesake No. 2 remains the Canadian handyman’s standard: A square head with a point, it is a design so simple and perfect that your eschewing it bewilders us. The Robertson never slips, and it never strips, and it can be driven one-handed with nary a wobble. And while there are pockets of reported Robertson activity in Florida, Texas, and Indiana, thanks mostly to the freethinking folks in the RV industry, you’re probably missing it from your toolbox, and that’s an even greater national tragedy than your ugly money. In a recent ranking of great Canadian inventions, the Robertson ranked seventh, ahead of the zipper and the retractable beer-carton handle, just one spot behind the pacemaker. But the Robertson is the real lifesaver, rescuing us from both flatheads and Henry M. Phillips’s vastly inferior product. That sham artist actually had the nerve to suggest that his screwdrivers were designed to slip, to prevent “over-tightening.” Up here, there’s no such word.
These are very common in woodworking, and have been for a decade or two. I have a few thousand downstairs in my shop. They are a wonder to use!
Though I have never seen a driver with a point. . .
I got my undergrad in Industrial Engineering, and yes, had a course on Fasteners. . . The flathead is a travesty, and is never appropriate to use. The phillips head was indeed designed for use in factories, where the ability to “cam out” is a very nice safety factor.
Are you telling me this is only in Canada? I had no idea. I use Robertson “square-head” screws and drivers all the time. I thought it was as standard and international as the Phillips and slot-headed screws.
I could have sworn I’ve ordered products from the US, or from US manufacturers, that included these screws for assembly, but maybe I’m mistaken.
The square drive are about all I use in woodworking (and other uses). They are easy to use and look great. The major problem is finding them in stores. Many home centers have the “combo drive” of phillips and square drive, but the true square drive screws I use I order by mail.
Robertson screws aren’t strange to the States, they just aren’t thee standard.
Did anyone else catch the minty hint of asshole in that little blip about screwdrivers? Hence Canadians blow ass in a rusty trombone fashion. It’s written with the intended audience of U.S. citizens and then they bitch about the U.S. and Her ugly money. Fuck off… our money’s fine, jack-ass.
I agree with Old Greg. I’ll keep using whatever I can buy down here. I’ll be damned if I’ll send any of my ugly money up to you. Keep your screws, and you can keep your those great Canadian-brand cars, too. Oh, yeah…there aren’t any. Go ahead and keep celebrating alone…just you, your national landmark screwdriver, your mommy’s beer carton and your rusty little zipper. Party on, Canuk.
Canuck’s can party and this particular instrument is amazing for opening Canadian beer cans. KISS Keep it simple stupid
My ex has a good story – he worked in the Cdn space industry, 25 yrs ago, and the satelite they shipped to to Cape Canaveral (?) for launching was boxed and fastened by Robertson screws. Apparenly it took quite a while to find a Cdn expat to go home and get his Robertson screwwdrive.
I heard the story that the Robertson is widely unknown because he refused to sell the patent to Henry Ford
They maybe imported from Canada but the Robertson screwdriver and screws are 1000% better than any American made Phillips or flathead.
I discovered the Robertson when I bought my first RV 5 years ago and since than I use nothing else. As a matter of fact I threw all my Phillips and flathead screw away.
To Old Greg and DJ, Get a life.