An informational pamphlet on sharpening stones, produced at an interesting point in history when both natural and synthetic stones were in common usage, and the sources of internationally traded natural stones were well known with active quarries. While one must bear in mind that as a promotional document the information within will hold certain biases, yet this provides a fascinating and seemingly often frank look into what went into the production of natural and synthetic sharpening stones during a major transitional period of history.
A full .PDF file of this document may be found here.
A catalog of the Derby, Ball, Edwards Corporation, which was established in 1920. The company changed its name to Derby & Ball, Inc. in 1933, placing this catalog within that window of time. A .PDF of this catalog can be found in its entirety here.
An original photograph by Fotograms of New York City. The back contains the pasted typewriter text:
PLEASE CREDIT FOTOGRAMS, N.Y.
CHAMPION GIRL SCYTHE SLINGER CUTS WIDE SWATH.
HELEN BERNABY, CHAMPION GIRL SCYTHE SLINGER. 19 YEARS OLD, WAS UNTIL A DAY OR TWO AGO, WAS CHAMPION MOWER OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, EVEN OVER ALL THE MEN, THIS YEAR, A 65-YEAR OLD VETERAN WITH GNARLED HANDS, THAT HAVE BEEN TRAINED IN THE SHUFFLING SWING OF A SCYTHE THREE TIMES AS LONG AS HELEN’S REDEEMED THE RPIDE [sic] OF MASCULINE NEW HAMPSHIRE, BY DEFEATING HELEN, HELEN IS AN ALL-ROUND ATHLETE, AND SHE HOPES TO TURN THE TABLES NEXT YEAR.
The year prior to when this photo was taken, a New York Times article was written celebrating her victory. Be forewarned that the article is “of its time” and contains remarks that reflect the then-present biases against her Italian heritage. This original photo appears to have received some artistic enhancement to compensate for the brightness and contrast of the negative, having outlines painted in to enhance the edges of the collar, her arm, and folds of her garments, as well as the top of her head.
A thin, folded price list and illustrations of the wares offered by David Wadsworth & Son of Auburn, New York. In contrast to companies like Rixford who produced a well heat-treated but inconsistently forged product, David Wadsworth & Son items tend towards exemplifying extreme precision in their work, most blades of theirs in good condition showing remarkably crisp lines for tools produced by open die hand forging.
A wonderful brad-bound catalog and price list, with large glossy pages. Because of the method of binding, the pages appear off-center when isolated, but appear centered when viewed in their bound state.
A three-hole-punched leaflet acting as an abbreviated catalog of Rixford’s wares. This may have been a supplement to an existing catalog, but the composition seems to imply that it was intended as a stand-alone document. Of interesting note is the “Mighty Atom scythe” mentioned as one of the items not depicted, as it describes it as not only being especially lightweight, but that it was available in both American and European “shanks” which we take to indicate as the tang. We have never seen a blade of American form with a European style tang, which would be quite unusual. However, as they are shown listed adjacent to “genuine Swedish scythes” of “Austrian pattern” it seems very likely that they were not the original manufacturer of these, and instead were importing them, possibly from Redtenbacher of Austria.
One of the largest and most notable snath manufacturers, and the only surviving of them all to the modern day. This catalog is mostly likely circa ~1931-1935 due to the inclusion of insert prints of the Ironclad snaths which were patented in 1931, meaning that the earliest issue date was post-patent, but before they formally released catalog No.24. Printing catalogs was quite costly historically, so the norm was to produce them only when changes to the selection, pricing, and other relevant information had become so out of date as to necessitate a new issue. This catalog was likely printed prior to September 22, 1931, but issued within a few years of that date, such that the Ironclad snaths were a recent loose-leaf addition. We apologize for the heavier watermarking on this catalog than on many previous, but due to the wide prevalence of Seymour’s snaths and past instances of people cropping our archived images for eBay listings without proper credit, we’ve had to resort to this approach to prevent commercial abuse of a free resource made available thanks to large amounts of time and money spent in their acquisition and hosting. Watermark-free images are on-hand in our personal files, and we’re happy to negotiate access to them for fellow researchers’ non-commercial use.
Most bevel gauges on the market are poor for measuring edge angles. The typical fixed-angle type cannot give you a precise reading on an existing angle, and the apex apertures to protect the edge from damage can cause problems if your bevel width is more narrow than the aperture radius. Most adjustable angle finders have an overlapped hinge that means that at low angles your V notch disappears completely due to overlap of the rules, and therefore you need arms long enough to cause a V notch to occur at the relevant angles you’re measuring. While we still need to optimize the dimensions for the use case to improve readability once a scale is applied. This prototype was made using steel pallet banding and gunmetal-finished brass compression rivets like we use on our PetroCor sheaths. It weighs only 0.2 oz and is 4″ long.
A 1″ wide solid steel chisel made from a section of a 1/2″-thick 1080 steel snow plow blade. The blade was heat treated, but soft, so the blade and struck end were heated, quenched, and differentially tempered to give a 57 RC blade and 45 RC struck end, with the main length being roughly 35 RC.
This prototype universal-fit axe handle is made from split hickory, for perfect end-to-end grain, measuring 1-7/16″ x 3-5/8″ with an overall length of 34″ and the main length reduced to 1-5/8″ wide x 5/8″ thick, with the tongue and swell left at full stock dimension.
The intent is to leave material for the end user to fine-tune the handle to their particular head, while doing the bulk of the time-intensive thinning work for them. The main length is extra broad to permit the end user to make minor alignment adjustments in the handle orientation in addition to at the tongue, and the flat sides of the knob make laminating additional material easier, if desired. The swell is also left broad so that it may be finished to whatever shape the end user most prefers, and by not cutting a kerf it may be cut as the end user sees fit, or not at all (as is traditional for bush hooks.) The head may be positioned more forward or more rearward on the generous block of the tongue/neck to adjust the balance and orient the bit as desired.
A collection of writings on edged tools from the folks at Baryonyx Knife Co.
