On Mon, Dec 10, 2018 at 4:43 PM Bill Ghio wrote:

> Was there a period when Buck Bros. made chisels in England?
>

There are enough examples out there to show that they definitely did have
some of their chisels made in England.  As you said, it seems like a much
later period, based on the look of the handles and the cheap ferrules.  And
it seems that only carving tools and the crank-neck chisels and gouges were
made in England (although I could be wrong about this).

The company was owned by Buck descendants until 1948, and then changed
hands again in 1951 (and I'm not sure who owns it now). John Kebabian wrote
a nice short history of the Buck Brothers in the EAIA Chronicle in 1972.
He mentions that the manager who took over in 1948 was still running the
company in 1972. He has no mention of any chisels being made in England and
I haven't seen any information on this in my research (although I am
realizing I did this research 10-15 years ago[!] so my memory is hazy). But
my guess is that the corporate bean counters decided it was cheaper to farm
out the production of the more specialized tools that sold in smaller
quantities. The Buck carving tools are from the English tradition (rather
than continental styles) and so this makes sense as there were still tool
manufacturers in Sheffield making carving tools.

Brian Welch
still in central Massachusetts, hoping it doesn't take another 10-15 years
to get back to finishing research on central Mass toolmakers, but not
holding my breath either