Tom

While Winchester would be my first guess, there are 16 entries in DAT with
HEST in them.

(Shortening that list to INCHESTER brings up only B. Winchester, a plane
maker.  Remember this is pre-1900, and pre-Repeating Arms Co.)

The other choices include Manchester, Chester, Chichester and Rochester,
Moses and Union Steel Chest, or some combination of the above names.

I am agreeing on Winchester as the most likely choice for a chisel



On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 4:16 PM Thomas Conroy via OldTools <
oldtools@s...> wrote:

> 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
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