Some new-to-me tools I picked up the other day

[Jonathan M Peters]

Found a guy locally who sells antiques out of his home and at flea markets. He acquired a bunch of hand tools from a carpenter who recently passed on. I picked through piles and shelves of tools for about an hour. This is what I ended up with. Nothing super valuable, nothing I’d consider a gem, but these tools will get a lot of use from me and I’m happy to have found them! Prices were very reasonable too and you can tell these were readily used…the plane blades are super sharp!

• Wood Jointer Plane (27 1/2” L x 3 1/2” W)
• Wood Clamps
• 2 Stanley Try Squares
• The LSS Co. Combination Square (Athol, Mass—it’s a Starrett, but not sure what era)
• Bit Brace (no brand)
• Millers Falls Egg Beater Drill
• Stanley 110 Block Plane (Made in England)
• Norvell Shapleigh Diamond Edge (#4 size—I’m not familiar with the brand, has a Stanley Sweetheart blade)
• Sargent 414
• Unbranded Plane w/ Diamond Edge Blade (15” L x 2 11/16” W—not sure what size this is?—seems like a 5 1/2—it’s longer and wider than the Sargent 414)

If anyone knows anything about these tools, would love to hear from you! Thanks for checking out my hand tool grab I can take more pics if there’s anything else you’d like to see.

IMG_20200208_104535.jpg IMG_20200208_104545.jpg IMG_20200208_104554.jpg

[Hilton Ralphs]

Well done! Love that Millers egg beater.

[Jim Koepke]

Howdy Jonathan and welcome to the Creek.

The brace has what is known as a Samson chuck. The maker's mark is often hard to see under rust on the horizontal crank arms. A few makers used that chuck.

Sometimes a plane's maker can be determined by some of the minor details such as both ends of the lateral lever, the face of the frog or the wood used for the handles.

Often blades are replaced with whatever the local hardware store had on hand.

jtk

[Jonathan M Peters]

Upon further inspection...

• The big wooden jointer plane is marked "Arrowmammet Works Middletown"
• The Stanley Try Planes both are marked with Patent Date 2-8-98
• The unmarked 5 1/2 blade is 2 1/4 wide. And after looking at the frog / twist lateral adjustment lever, I believe this plane was made by Union (maybe for a hardware store since there are no markings?). I also took a pic of the frog in case that helps.

[Jonathan M Peters]

Howdy Jonathan and welcome to the Creek.

The brace has what is known as a Samson chuck. The maker's mark is often hard to see under rust on the horizontal crank arms. A few makers used that chuck.

Sometimes a plane's maker can be determined by some of the minor details such as both ends of the lateral lever, the face of the frog or the wood used for the handles.

Often blades are replaced with whatever the local hardware store had on hand.

jtk

Thank you for this information. I looked closely at the brace for a maker's mark, but wasn't able to see anything. Maybe once I clean her up it will reveal something legible.

[steven c newman]

Lion was Millers Falls name for that chuck...PEXTO used the Samson name on their version.

[Jonathan M Peters]

Regarding the try squares, according to this link, it seems they are Stanley No. 2 Winterbottom’s Patent Combined Try & Miter Squares.

[steven c newman]

I have a couple of those fancy squares...among a bunch of others....the brass has a "T" shape to it, and fits into a groove in the wood handle...
Wooden squares, mitre squares.JPG
Wooden squares 1.JPG

Kind of hard to resist....futile, in fact...

[Nicholas Lawrence]

It may also be branded as a Craftsman (made by Millers Falls as best I can tell). Regardless of who made it, it looks like a premium brace.

[steven c newman]

Hmmm...
IMAG0081.jpg
PEXTO No. 8012 Samson Chuck, 12" sweep..
IMAG0082.JPG
Ball bearing chuck, too...
IMAG0085.JPG

[J. Greg Jones]

It’s hard to tell from the one picture of the brace posted, but it looks like a Millers Falls made brace with the Lion chuck to me. The Sampson chuck on the Peck, Stow, & Wilcox (PEXTO) does look similar, and it can be difficult to tell them apart by looking only at the chucks. The easiest way to tell the two brands apart is to look at the wrist handle on the sweep. Millers Falls used straight retainer rings on their braces while PEXTO used beveled rings (see photo). Both companies produced braces for other companies, Millers Falls especially in large number for the Craftsman brand and it would appear PEXTO made braces for numerous companies in smaller numbers. The two braces pictured are an example of that, that’s a Worth brace (PEXTO) on the top and a Craftsman (MF) on the bottom.

[Jonathan M Peters]

It’s hard to tell from the one picture of the brace posted, but it looks like a Millers Falls made brace with the Lion chuck to me. The Sampson chuck on the Peck, Stow, & Wilcox (PEXTO) does look similar, and it can be difficult to tell them apart by looking only at the chucks. The easiest way to tell the two brands apart is to look at the wrist handle on the sweep. Millers Falls used straight retainer rings on their braces while PEXTO used beveled rings (see photo). Both companies produced braces for other companies, Millers Falls especially in large number for the Craftsman brand and it would appear PEXTO made braces for numerous companies in smaller numbers. The two braces pictured are an example of that, that’s a Worth brace (PEXTO) on the top and a Craftsman (MF) on the bottom.

I've looked all over this thing for stamping, but can't find anything. Probably covered by rust for now. Here are some more pics:

IMG_20200212_173033.jpgIMG_20200212_173117.jpgIMG_20200212_173326.jpgIMG_20200212_173347.jpgIMG_20200212_173537.jpg

[Nicholas Lawrence]

It will be under the crud on that forward crank arm. Looks like a MF to me, but I am no expert. When you take the chuck apart, keep in mind that there are about 100 little ball bearings in there that will go flying all over the place if you let them.

[Jim Koepke]

Jonathan, your images make the chuck look like it is off at an angle.

The Samson chuck in my bevy of braces is on a 8014 with SAMSON in large letters following the 8014 on the crank arm. It is a bit faint and difficult to see even with it being fairly clean.

4 Stanley Braces & one Samson 14%22.jpg

It is the one on the upper left.

This is an image of the Millers Falls Lion chuck:

Lion Chuck Bit View.jpg

This is quite different than the same view of a Samson chuck.

[Jonathan M Peters]

Aha! Mystery solved. I started cleaning her up and found the stamping. It's a Craftsman.

I think it says "CRAFSTMAN - 10 MADE IN USA"