Roger Nixon asked:

>Last weekend I picked up 14 gouges.  Some are marked "F. STONES" the
>others are marked "I. HERRIN" both say "CAST STEEL".  Does anyone have any
>information about these?    ....

>Out in the Flint Hills of Kansas

Turning to Ken Roberts' "Check List of 19th Century Sheffield
Edge Tool Makers," (in _Some 19th Century English Woodworking
Tools_, c. 1980), we find the following entry which seems a
good fit for the "F. STONES" mark:

STONES, Frederick          Arundel St.    -1817-1841-
                            Orchard St.    -1845-

Stones' firm was also listed, in the Sheffield Directories, as a
maker of saws (-1821-1845-), and joiners' tools  (-1821-1849-).
Goodman lists the firm as making plane irons from 1824 to 1833.

I find no exact match for the "I. HERRIN" mark, but have a couple
of candidates from Ken Roberts' check list of Sheffield edge tool
makers (*assuming* "HERRIN" is an incomplete "HERRING" stamp):

HERRING, John            Broad Street                   -1837-1856-
    "      "   & Sons       "      "    Navigation Works -1857-1900-

HERRING, Joseph          Brightman Street               -1884-
    "       "  & Sons        "         "                 -1888-1893-

The John Herring & Sons firm is also listed as making saws
(-1879-1884-) and joiners' tools (-1863-1900-).

If these gouges appear to have been part of a single working
kit, and of, roughly, the same age, the overlapping working
dates of Frederick Stones and John Herring would seem to be
fairly suggestive of the identity of both makers as well as
the time-frame in which the kit was assembled.

Don McConnell
Knox County, Ohio

30 minutes from "Flint Ridge"