Toolemera Blog

Witherby History

Often, interested and dedicated fanatics, errr, scholars, research the history of a particular company by pouring over moldy town records, searching old, yellowed newspapers and pestering local historical societies for information. Some of us simply buy an old trade catalog and extract the company history from the preface.

This is one of this instances. Witherby has always stood for excellence in edge tools, chisels, gouges, turning tools, draw knives, etc. I recently received a very nice and very scarce copy of a c1950 catalog for this self-same company. As I had hoped, there was a concise history of the two companies. To add to the allure of this catalog, there are a number of tools and tool sets that I had neither heard of nor seen before. The history is presented here, as well as at The Toolemera Press website:
............................
IN 1827, in Millbury, Massachusetts, T. H. Witherby started manufacturing the fine steel 'chisels that today still bear his name. The high standards of quality under which those tools were designed and produced gave Witherby Chisels a very high reputation among tool users.
After forty-two years of consistently maintaining this reputation, the Witherby business and its good will were purchased in 1869 by the Win¬sted Edge Tool Company of Winsted, Connecticut, an organization that had been manufacturing edged implements since 1829.

Three years after acquiring the Witherby rights, the new owners decided to discontinue their other products and concentrate on Witherby Chisels. Later gouges and drawing knives of similar high quality were added to the Witherby line, and in 1882 the present company name, The Winsted Edge Tool Works, was adopted.

In all these years of expert tool-making from 1827 down to the present day-dose to a century and a quarter-a vast wealth of knowledge and experience has been accumulated. The Witherby reputation for high quality has never been lost sight of. The excellence of the steels selected has been maintained. Special hardening and tempering processes have been perfected, to give uniformly hardened surfaces, with absence of soft areas. The procedure of rigid inspection at various vital stages of manu¬facture is scrupulously upheld.

Equal skill and care are devoted to the design and production of handles for Witherby Tools. Only high grade, second growth white hickory stock is used. For the leather tips, skin of excellent quality is expertly applied. And all handles pass as rigid inspection as is given the steel blades.
These are reasons why we are able to stand behind every Witherby Chisel, Gouge and Drawing Knife with the following unqualified guarantee.
............................

 For the full effect of this catalog, please head over to my companion web site, The Toolemera Press : Free Stuff, for the pdf. Unfortunately, the recent spate of bootlegging of material has led me to add some additional security measures. When this pdf is printed, or viewed in any PDF reader other than Adobe Reader, you will see a faint copyright logo splashed across the middle of each page.

The Toolemera Press Free Stuff : Winsted Witherby Feature Page

Till next, Gary

PS. A few people have had difficulty opening this pdf file. This pdf has been optimized for Reader 8 or above. If you have not upgraded recently, please head over and get a copy HERE!

1833 Single Page Catalogue

Over at that OTHER site, the one I rarely name, is a plane makers catalog from 1833. Msrs. Hills & Richards of Norwich, Massachusetts, felt it was time to distribute their catalog of goods. From what I can see, these guys were only in business for a very short time. They each were skilled plane makers in their own right. I checked the bible of American wooden planes:

A Guide to the Makers of American Wooden Planes and discovered that these guys changed partners almost as often as a square dance couple would. Was it all about personalities? Someone's lease ran out and they had to move? Contractual disputes? Artistic differences in the placement of the gouge cut? Disagreements over the purpose of the saw nib? For some reason, Hills could not stick with any one partner.

Aside from my wonderings about the intra-corporate conflicts of the 19th C plane makers business, this catalog is interesting in that it is early, in fact the earliest catalog in my personal collection. It's a single sheet of paper and it's a stampless letter. Stamps were first issued in 1847 and by 1856 had become mandatory. The stampless letter was folded up carefully, sealed with a wax blob and mailed. Sometimes the sender paid the way, sometimes the recipient might be responsible for charges. In 1833, the stampless letter was the only way to go. Although, it wasn't called a stampless letter because we had not yet invented stamps.

You'll notice this catalog is entitled: "Catalogue and Invoice Prices...". There is also a note offering 'liberal discount to Wholesale Dealers'. My guess is that 'invoice' meant this is the price and we won't raise it when you walk in the door.  Reading through the types of planes offered is fascinating stuff. We have our assumptions of what was a commonly needed plane, but our assumptions are based upon our present day system of work. Halving planes are offered in three styles, regular, with handles and with plating. We don't use these today, but clearly there was a need for them in the early 19th C.

Bed molding planes are there too. No, not for your trundle bed, but for the molding along the floor. I think. Or maybe it was for a four poster? But what is a Blind Plane? Boxed or Unboxed? I'm guessing Draw Planes referred to shaves, but that is only a guess. They were available boxed, moving fence and circular. The Circular plane was also called a Heel plane.

Fillister planes were a big item. Hills & Richards offered them in every variety you can think of:

• with stop
• with stop and cut
• with stop, cut and boxed
• with screw, stop, cut and boxed
• with armes, stop, cut and boxed
• with screw, armes, stop, cut and boxed

Fillister planes are yet often found, atesting to their popularity. The variety of configurations speaks loads to the personal preferences of the workers, if not to the ever-present "my tool is fancier than your tool" school of though. If you're looking for a modern fillister, check out Philly Planes for a true to the note fillister. Even Chris Schwartz, who sings the praises of hand tools, reveled in the delights of fillistering.

Before there were multi-page, bound trade catalogs, there were single sheet catalogs of this ilk. Before the single sheet there were trade cards that served as catalogs or listings of goods. I haven't come across one of the trade card variety as of yet, but I'm still looking. The closest I can come to that is the May & Co. trade card at my website, The Toolemera Press. What, you thought I wouldn't slip another reference in? The May & Co. trade card is late 19th C, so although it does list a bunch of stuff, it really can't be termed a catalog of goods.

I have another single page plane makers catalog to display, but first I have to remove some photo-mounts that became stuck to it. And that is why you should never mount single page trade catalogs using photo-mounts (no, it wasn't me).

Till next
Gary

Firming Up On Chisels

Recently a question came up on a forum concerning what is, or what is not, a firmer chisel. I put my foot in my mouth and said that firmer chisels were typically socketed and of heavier build than regular chisels. Afterwards I took a look at some edge tool catalogs on my shelves. Lo and behold, but what did I see, but a whole lot of confusion. It seems that at some point in time the term "firmer" took on a life of it's own and became a marketing gimmick. Why not call your chisels firmers and make them sound, well, firmer?

This particular 1905 catalog from the L. & I. J. White Edge Tool Company of Buffalo, N.Y., features the full line of their products. By and large all of their chisels are termed Firmer. Socketed, tanged, bevel edge, straight edge, gouge, you name it they are all Firmers. The White Company sold primarily to  folks in the ship building, cooperage and timber framing trades, with other tools for carriage makers, butchers and the ice industry. But their primary source of bread and butter was chisels. I guess that naming it a Firmer Chisel meant something special to the trade.

You can guess what's coming next... this is why I like ephemera. No guessing, no assumptions, just the facts. Or at least the facts as the maker wanted the facts to appear as. Don't you just love marketing? The only way to pin down the answer to the Firmer Chisel question would be to sit down with products from a variety of makers and compare them. I have a feeling that by the end of the 19th C, tool terms had a way of becoming general in nature. 

Saws and planes are nice. I think that it's time to give the edge tool makers some air time. I'll be digging up some other edge tool catalogs for posting just so I can determine if I have to keep my foot in my mouth or if it's ok to remove it.

A quick word on the late-great-toolemera-reference-desk. It's no more. I have a few too many pots burning on the stove and had to cut something before the pots melted.

Self-Serving Marketing Note: The L. & I. J. White Edge Tool Company catalog of 1905 is available as a 10 mb PDF over at The Toolemera Press website.

Till next
Gary

.................................News Flash!.........................

Tom asked of the derivation of the word "Firmer". The answer is good enough that I add it here:

Main Entry: fir·mer chisel
Pronunciation: \ˈfər-mər-\
Function: noun
Etymology: French fermoir chisel, alteration of Middle French formoir, from former to form, from Old French forme form
Date: 1823
: a woodworking chisel with a thin flat blade
...............................

So a Firmer Chisel began life as a tool to form something. The name took on a life of it's own and became a bit of marketing to sell the product. That's the danger of relying on advertising... it's advertising even if it is a trade catalog.

Mr. Witherby Builds His Dream House

Well, maybe not a dream house. But I did have a dream. I heard faint voices calling to me in the dead of night... "Garyyyy, Garryyyy, we are lost and need a home. We are lonely and need the companionship of our siblings" (clearly a very educated spirit). So I bestirred myself and hot-footed it over to the website. There they where, crying piteously in their loneliness. Being a kind-hearted soul, I forth-with corralled them and ushered them to their new home, the T. H. Witherby & The Winsted Edge Tool Co. page at my website. The crying stopped and all was well in Winsted, Connecticut.

Seeing their distress, I can only assume that the same fate has befallen other orphaned trade catalogs, billheads, post cards and the like of other companies. In answer to their plight, I will gradually arrange for suitable accomodations for these deserving entities, such as Disston, Ohio Tool, D.R. Barton and so on.

The measure of a man is his response to suffering. I can go to sleep now feeling that today I have done a Good Thing for all Ephemera.

Till next
Gary

Catalog Disbinding

Disbinding: removing the covers of a bound book (or trade catalog). In the book binding trade, disbinding is a step taken when the the item needs to be re-covered or the original binding, or contents, needs repair. So why does the word Disbinding make me cringe?

There has been a faction amongst sellers of ephemera who routinely purchase books, trade catalogs and the like, disbind the original and sell the contents as individual pages or image plates. For the purposes of full disclosure, I buy these orphans when the contents are of interest and deserving of preservation. But I cringe each time I do, thinking of the cruel punishment the originals underwent in the name of commerce. On rare occasions I can assemble either the complete original or a near complete set by purchasing the individual leaves (book people term for pages, not to be confused with oak or maple leaves). I typically ask if the original cover exists, or the title page, but rarely if ever is this so.

As you all know, trade catalogs are a species on the brink of extinction. A non-renewable resource, trade catalogs do not reproduce, even under suitable conditions. Each time a trade catalog is disbound we lose another hunk of history. The individual plates or leaves, while hanging prettily on the wall, mounted in a nice Walmart frame, become objects of beauty, devoid of the historic context that reveals to the viewer how that piece of paper relates to the study of tools, trades, crafts and industries. If I had my way, those sellers who purchase trade catalogs with the express purpose of disbinding them should be banned for life from selling, sentenced to an eternity of hand dusting bindings in the Library of Congress.

I wish there was a rule on that online auction service that forbade the disbinding of books and catalogs. Sure, I might be outbid on the full catalog, but at least I would know that that catalog still existed in it's whole state, in some collection somewheres. And that is my New Year's Wish for 2008.

Gary