> I spent some time earlier today cleaning up a bunch of Buck> Bros
> gouges. Does anyone know of a type study on Buck Bros? Especially the>
> chisels/gouges? I'm thinking about doing some SketchUp> renderings of
> the various handle types - be a good reference> for those who might
> have the iron and not the handle, I'm> thinking.
I have been gathering information on the Buck Brothers for my website
(http://galootcentral.com/membersites/brianwelch/buck/index.htm) for
quite a few years now, and you can see my company history there and some
of the logos used, but doing a type study on chisels is an incredibly
difficult thing for a whole host of reasons:

1) Patents. Compared to some of your other more sexy tools, such as
   planes and saws and braces, in which the newest patentable feature
   is all the rage, the chisel is a more conservative tool that doesn't
   lend itself to fashion trends. A chisel is a hunk of steel
   (sometimes steel and iron) with a handle and sometimes a ferrule.
   What matters is the quality of the steel and craftsmanship that goes
   into transforming it into a chisel. Planemakers and sawmakers and
   bracemakers were constantly adding new features and new patents
   (which enabled them to briefly corner the market until the next big
   advance came along). If you look in DATAMP, there are 691 plane
   patents, 942 handsaw patents, and a measly 67 chisel patents. With a
   few exceptions (such as Stanley's Everlast chisels--see
   http://www.oldtooluser.com/TypeStudy/everlasttypestudy.htm ) you
   can't date a chisel by the patent because there aren't any
   associated patents.

2) Advertisements and Catalogs. For planes, saws, etc., your catalogs
   and advertisements in the hardware trade journals had to be
   constantly updated to keep up with the advancements. You just don't
   have this in the chisel world. The first Buck Brothers catalog I have
   is from 1865. A number of the etchings done for that catalog were
   still in use in their 1890 catalog. It is much more difficult to
   compare a chisel found in the wild to a picture in a catalog for
   purposes of dating than it is for other tools.

3) Logos. The Buck Brothers logo changed in 1875 to the Buck's Head logo
   and they started marking tools with this logo. Thus, if your chisel
   has a Buck's Head on it, it was made on or after 1875, but not all
   the chisels made after 1875 has the logo. Many chisels just aren't
   that big and don't have room for a big logo on it. And gouges even
   more so. Logos on gouges have to be small, because the curvature of a
   gouge doesn't give you a nice flat space to put a big logo. So many
   post-1875 Buck Brothers tools don't have the Buck's Head logo.

4) Handles. Unlike planes and saws, many if not most chisels were sold
   without handles and the user made his own handles. Newer Buck Bros.
   chisels are more likely to have a factory handle, and these usually
   have the Buck's Head logo stamped into them. But by and large, in-the-
   wild chisel handles are all over the map. People buy chisels for the
   steel, not the wood. And unless you have a matched set and want to
   make a replacement handle to match, lots of people like having a
   different style of handle for every chisel. Or you want to make a
   matched set of your own design. But most people don't seem to be
   copying the factory handles on Buck chisels in my experience.

5. Stability. Buck Brothers tools have been made in the same spot in
   Millbury, MA with the same company name since 1864. Other companies
   changed names or partners or locations numerous times and that is a
   big help for tool collectors and researchers. No such luck for Buck
   Bros. collectors.

6.  Model numbers. Chisels are almost never marked with a model number.
    Another disadvantage compared to saws, planes, braces, etc.

Other than the addition of the Buck's head logo in 1875, one surefire
way to tell the age of a chisel, or at least a tanged chisel, is to look
at the ferrule. Older chisels are more likely to have thick brass
ferrules, whereas twentieth century chisels have thin brass (or even
later, copper) ferrules with a dimple in them holding them in place.
Older chisels are more likely to say "cast steel." Newer Swan chisels,
e.g., are sometimes marked "tool steel."

Does that mean a type study of Buck Brothers chisels can't be done? Not
at all. But it is not a task that I have the time or patience for at
this point in my life. Maybe in 20 years when the kids are grown up and
I have had time to collect a few hundred or thousand more chisels, then
I'll have time to sort it out. If someone else figures it all out before
then, I'd love to read about it.

Hope this helps.

Brian Welch Holden, MA (on the other side of Worcester from
Millbury, MA)

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