Toolemera: T. H. Witherby 1868 Price List

Gary Roberts

Member
Messages
37
Location
Massachusetts
Folks

Just in from that electronic auction house that we have such a love/hate relationship with is this single page price list from 1868 for the T. H. Witherby Tool Co. As I continue to push people to my blog before the website, an action I take without regret or self-recrimination, step over to...

http://toolemerablog.typepad.com/toolemera/

and enjoy yourself. For your additional reading pleasure, there are links provided for further material on Witherby and Winsted over at the sites of Brian Welch and of WKFineTools

Enjoy
Gary
 
Duh for me

Travis

Interesting. I doubt that the Witherby is the edge tool guy, but still I can find no reference to a Witherby, Ruggs and Richardson as either planemakers or hardware dealers. Could you get an image of the stamp on the toe?

Gary

Ok, so I took that one literally and thought of an 18 inch jointer (hand plane, even though at that size it would be a fore plane). My friend Brian Welch said...

"C'mon Gary--you must not have read my Witherby history that closely! The
Witherby part of Witherby, Rugg and Richardson is Luke Bucklin Witherby, T
H Witherby's baby brother! "
 
Gary, I apologize for not understanding, or barring that the WD-40 fumes are getting to me from the whole Simonds Saw scrubbing thing I just got done doing. But are you saying the Witherby family had brothers that made both hand planes and the famous ship building machinery they were so well known for? From my understanding they were known very well for making planers, but have no patents on jointer's that I am aware of. I have been on the US Patent Offices website and did find a whole pile of patents for other machinery however. No hand tools that I am aware of however.

Here is picture of my jointer after its rebuild. Its interesting to note that another version of this jointer exists somewhere in MA too. I got an email via the OWWM website from a lawyer in that area. He said he had my jointers twin sister. Unfortunately he was not a woodworker and did little with it, merely buying it as he said "just to have something very old and interesting."

As for my rebuild, I need to machine some new knives for it, then power it somehow. Either via an electric motor, or via my 25 hp tractor PTO shaft.

Jointer-New_Paint-403x572.jpg
 
Here is the link to Brian's site, which includes the lines relating to the Witherby family in the second paragraph. I would have caught that, plus figured out what you had referred to if not for a concussion that clouds my brains! Never argue with a mailbox... it will win.

Gary
 
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