O Galoots:

I bought another little "unmarked" chisel for my socket short butt set. It is,
of course, actually marked under a well-placed patch of pitting. I can make out,
with a 10x lens and with no doubt whatever:
[....]HEST[....]--TRADE MARK--MADE IN USA

With a little wiggling and consideration of alternatives I am about 90% sure of
"[..]INCHESTER" as the first line, which says Winchester to me; this is
bolstered by an examination of Winchester marks on chisels on eBay, which vary a
lot but which always seem to include as separate lines "Trade Mark" and "Made in
USA". But, just to be sure, can anyone think of an alternative "...heste..."
trade mark name?

I know that Winchester chisels are collectable, I presume because of the
connection to the arms company: but can anyone tell me if they are any good? Or
if they were actually made by Winchester Arms, or another company with the same
name, or if they were outsourced to another maker?

This set began with almost-simultaneous gifts of chisels from Bill Ghio and Bill
Kasper about two years ago: they fitted my hand so well that I started filling
in. The idea is do a different fine maker for every size, and a different wood
for each handle. So far I have:
1/8" John Pritzlaff "Everkeen," handle not yet decided.
1/4" Winchester, original handle (possibly hickory).
5/16" Jas. Swan Co., probably late production because the original bevels were
ground grotesquely off-center, handle deckwood offcut (possibly ipe).
3/8" Pexto, original handle repaired with new leather washers around new black
locust washer-core.
1/2" Witherby, handle black locust. The (partly illegible)mark can be dated to
within a year or two of 1888 by a little "lazy ermine-dot" ornament.
5/8" Buck Bros. Cast Steel, original hickory handle. Gift from Bill Ghio a gift
to him some years before which catalysed the assembly of a set of Pextos.
3/4" Wards Master Quality, handle unknown red-brown hardwood, knurled. Gift from
Bill Kasper.
7/8" E.A Berg with shark logo, handle English laurel (I think).
1" Stanley Everlasting, datable by mark to the mid-1920s or later, original wood
in handle
1-1/4" Greenlee, persimmon branchwood handle.
Blades vary from 1-7/8" long to 3-1/4" long, clustering at 2-1/2"; overall
length is mostly pretty close to 7". I'm still looking for 3/16", 7/16", and
1-1/8", but I may have to regrind from wider chisels to get these widths. And
I'm surprisingly short on "Cast Steel" marks. Some makers, like Barton and L.&
I.J. White don't seem to turn up in the sizes I need, apart from being very
pricey indeed now, but I have hopes of Charles Buck and Robert Duke. The absence
of British makers is because they rarely did socket bevel chisels. I obviously
don't exclude wholesaler marks if the quality is OK, and I'll add that the Wards
Master Quality that helped trigger this set is (like the other Ward's Master
chisel I have) as good steel as any I have ever used---I'd like to know who made
it.

Tom Conroy
Berkeley



Tom Conroy