Wiktor posted the Winsted Edge Tool Works history to his site:

http://www.wkfinetools.com

He did a great job.  It's a web based version with a table of 
contents.  A PDF version is also posted on the site.

He also wanted a bio so I put one together and he suggested I post it 
to the list, so here it is.

In real life, I am an assistant professor at the University of Rhode 
Island.  My specialty is plant pathology, the study of plant 
diseases.  In particular, my research focuses on those diseases that 
attack grasses.  I have an interest in fungal, bacterial and nematode 
pathogens and spent my graduate years working on vegetables.  At URI 
I teach a number of courses during the academic year and run the URI 
Turf Disease Diagnostic Laboratory during the summer.  In that 
capacity, I diagnose and develop management strategies for grass 
diseases on golf courses.

My two main hobbies are genealogical research and using/collecting 
old hand tools.  When I was a graduate student at Cornell University, 
I discovered that the school has a vast collection of books relating 
to the history of New England.  Being a New Englander, I could not 
have found a better place to undertake a genealogical research 
project.

It was only a few years ago, however, that I started collecting hand 
tools, as  a result of a "plane epiphany".  Although the son of a 
contractor and maybe because of it, my woodworking projects had 
always been utilitarian and crude.  They were more suited to holding 
up a house than living in one.  Having taken a single shop class in 
my youth, most hand tools were virtual foreigners to me.  But one 
day, out of the blue, it occurred to me that a hand plane would be 
useful. So I bought a brand new Stanley 12-220 to help do some finish 
work in my son's bedroom.  I had never used a hand plane before but 
after 2 passes of the plane, I could see the creative value and the 
possibilities of such an implement.  By having a tool, I feel the 
compulsive urge to use it.  Thus my discovery of old tools has 
allowed me, even forced me, to develop the skills for which these 
tools were intended.  And as a result, I can achieve a level of 
creative elegance in wood that has eluded me for most of my lifetime.

Discovering the history of old tools is much like undertaking a 
genealogical research project.  But instead of your genes tying you 
to those that came before you, you have a tool.  An object.  An 
artifact.  And it is fascinating to contemplate those that used that 
tool before you and where it may have travelled and what it may have 
created.  The Winsted Edge Tool Works has interested me because very 
little has been published about the company and their mysterious use 
of T.H. Witherby's name.   And in the end, it all comes down to 
personal history.  I have lived most of my life in Connecticut and my 
summers as a boy scout were spent at Camp Sequassen, Winsted, CT.

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