Thanks, Nathaniel, for the Witherby info =96 fantastic work! I
especially found interesting the stuff about matching the Witherby logos
to time periods. (Yes, that big-W chisel I have was probably overheated.
Maybe it will have to be my first retempering project.)

Meanwhile, your research into Witherby=92s logos reminded me that I have
been puzzling about just this topic with regard to the James Swan Co.
for a long time. I have a handful of Swan tools, mostly chisels and
drawknives, that I really love. I found in the archives a =20 wonderful
2005 post about the history about James Swan and his company by Paul
Honore =96 and others.

http://people.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/get.phtml?message_id=14387-
9&submit_thread=1#message

Thanks, fellas. What a great bit of work. Now I=92m wondering if it is
=20 possible to piece together how the Swan stamps correspond to various
time periods. There were a number of logos, (post-Douglass-era Swan):

* Plain, all capitals, block lettering: JAS. SWAN CO. U.S.A.
* Plain, all caps THE JAMES SWAN CO, without the =93USA.* There is also
  what appears to be the most common logo, the classic oval shaped stamp
  with the swimming swan in the center and THE JAMES SWAN CO. arching
  across the top and either BEST CAST STEEL or BEST TOOL STEEL across
  the bottom.
* There are some that have two rows of type (same type as on the oval)
  but with the swan image off to the side.
* I believe I=92ve seen some (though I don=92t own any) that say
  =93SEYMOUR, CONN.=94 Instead of the =93BEST =85 STEEL.* Then there are
  some stamped with just the image of a swan and no words.

I have a reprint of the 1911 and 1920 Swan catalogs. The oval logo seems
to predominate in the illustrations in 1920, mostly with =93BEST =20
CAST STEEL=94 but also with a few BEST TOOL STEEL. In 1911, there are a
=20 few oval logos, but most have the two rows of type and the swan to
one side. All say =93BEST CAST STEEL.=94 I don't see any =93BEST TOOL
=20 STEEL=94 in 1911.

That fits with what Nathaniel just posted about the use of the term
=93Cast steel=94 dropping out of use by 1920. Assuming the company
didn=92t hire an artist to redraw everything in the catalog every
year, but just reused the same illustrations for years, replacing
them only once in a while, that would account for the mix of logos in
the catalogs.

So it seems likely that tools stamped =93CAST STEEL=94 are pre-1920,
while those stamped =93TOOL STEEL=94 are roughly post-1911. But we
already pretty much knew that, I guess.

As for the plain block letter logos without the swan, I don=92t find =20
any in either catalog that look like that =96 except for some on the
narrowest chisels. But I have a 1=94 and a 3/4=94 that both have just
the plain block lettering. My first thought is that they were earlier,
but that=92s complete speculation. I really don=92t know. Likewise the
=20 lone swan with no type, I have no idea.

I suppose this all gets pretty dicey, because who knows if they changed
all the logos at once or whether there was a period when two (or
several) were in use for any number of reasons.

Any other Swan groupies out there with thoughts/knowledge on this?
Anyone with Swan catalogs from other years that shed any light? Thanks.

On Sep 27, 2007, at 10:18 PM, oldtools-request@r... =20 wrote:

> Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:34:35 -0400 From: "N.A. Mitkowski"
>  Subject: [OldTools] Re: Good Chisels To:
> oldtools@r... Message-ID:  Content-
> Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
>
> Yes, WETW did shut down in 1955, but only because a massive flood
> washed away most of the town, including their factory. I have a bunch
> of big-W Witherbys and they are fine. I suspect yours was over-ground.
> I'll bet it was bought new in 1953 by a homeowner with a brand new
> grinder. He probably just went to town, not knowing any better. See my
> history of the company on Wiktors www.wkfinetools.com. Some of the
> information is a little out-dated, Brian Welch has discovered some
> additional information about the purchase of the Witherby name by
> Winsted Hoe Company (from the Heald and Harrington Company) in 1868
> and that needs to be incorporated.
>
> We had a discussion of cast steel a few months back, check the
> archives. Essentially, the term "cast-steel" was a misnomer, just
> referring to the fact that the crucible process was used to make the
> steel into "castings" which were then forged. It was supposed to
> denote a high quality type of steel as opposed to some of the other
> technologies, but generally it disappeared from most tools between
> about the 1880's and 1920's (dates really approximate).
>
> Nathaniel Ashaway, RI

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