Couple of braces I am unfamiliar with. . .

[Matt Evans]

Ok, I was looking at my Braces the other day, and realized I had a few extra sitting around, so I thought I would do a bit of cleaning to some of them and get the best ones up on the wall above the bench. I wiped them down with brass wool and turpentine, and things started to pop out at me.

Yep, I have a no-name brace. Out of all of them, only one though, and it is the one I used most often. The others are a victor, a defiance, a holt, p.s&w, and a few that I know the names, but can't find anything out about.

So, the company name "Worth" mean anything to anyone?

And how about McIntosh-Heather? From what I can tell they made knives, but I can't find any brace info. (Really nice, smooth brace now that it is cleaned up a bit and oiled. Probably the smoothest I have.)

[David Gendron]

Nice braces. I know that they were a "Worth" who made draw knifes, but that's about it! that McIntosh look realy interesting, espacialy the chuk.

[Bill Houghton]

So, the company name "Worth" mean anything to anyone?

I have a Worth chisel with the same shape of text, which makes me think it's the same company; but I know nothing about the company that made it.

[Martin Cash]

I have a block plane made by Worth.
Rather large for a blockie and quite old.
MC

[Lynn Dowd]

I have seen the WORTH logo on a number of tools. It was a hardware store brand, like BLUE GRASS, KEEN KUTTER, CRAFTSMAN, etc. One source ( Roger K. Smith ) lists the store as Bigelow & Dowes Co., of Boston, MA., and shows the planes as being made by P,S,&W and , later, Stanley. Not sure who made the braces. Possibly Millers Falls.

[Rob Luter]

I have a "Worth" brand bench plane in a #4 size that I picked up at a junk sale. It has a folded steel frog and nondescript hardwood tote and knob. The design really speaks to "hardware store" utility and low cost. It really doesn't work very well due to the frog instability, but it was almost free and it seems to have a decent blade that I can use for something.