Mohawk Shelburne 10" Ratcheting Brace

This post is about fixing up a hand brace.  For most people reading this, there won't be anything new or ground breaking, so maybe this post is for those who don't already know much about braces.

One of the tools I found at the estate sales that I wrote about recently was a 10" ratcheting brace with the inscription "MOHAWK SHELBURNE / MADE IN U.S.A. / NO. 1710".  I didn't know anything about this brand, so I looked into it.

The Mohawk Shelburne No. 1710

The inscription

Info from the Old Tool Heaven website indicates (look about 3/4 down the linked page for the 1700 series) that this was made by Millers Falls as an "economy" line of tools.  This one is likely from the 1935-1948 time period, though I would have thought it was newer than that based on its condition.  It was a little rusty, but it cleaned up easily and is in great shape.  For an "economy" brace, this thing is built very solidly.

The first thing I did for this brace was to sand lightly (about 400 grit paper) all the surfaces to remove rust.  Fortunately it didn't need much.  I also used some 00 and 0000 steel wool and a wire wheel in a drill to clean things up.

Well, that looks a lot nicer!

The jaws that hold an auger bit need to be able to slide easily inside the shell.  I have skinny fingers and can fit one inside the shell with some fine sandpaper or steel wool to clean up the forward (conical) part of the inside of the shell.  If you've got fat fingers, use a padded screwdriver or something similar.

The shell and jaws

Looking from back end of the shell, note the shiny, smooth front conical portion
on the inside.  That's where the jaws need to slide.

Pointer shows where to get a nice smooth surface for the jaws to slide well in the shell

After cleaning up these parts, I gave them both a little oil to guard against rust and ensure they slide easily against each other.

Next is to clean up the threads on the inside of the shell and on the brace's main body where the shell screws on.  A brass brush or toothbrush works well here.  But when the dirt and gunk are a little heavier, then a pointed tool (like in the previous picture) can help clean them up.  A string can also be used to help clean between the external threads.

Clean threads allow the shell to screws on easily

The ratcheting mechanism is next.  For this brace, I shot some WD40 in all the joints to loosen up any crud.  Work the forward and reverse mechanism to loosen any dirt underneath it, and then spin the external threaded area in both directions to ensure the lubricant gets spread to all locations.

Here's the forward / reverse mechanism ...

... and the ratchet mechanism

So far I have not had the courage to do it, but if the ratcheting was not working (or working very poorly), you can knock out some pins to take it apart.

I think these two pins hold the ratcheting "pawls" in place

There's another pin here for disassembly of the ratcheting gear

I shook loose and wiped away as much WD40 as I could and added several drops of oil to keep things in nice working order.

Now for the handle - not sure what to call the rear handle, but that one.  I noticed early on the ball bearings that are used.  You can see them in the next picture.  If this wasn't already in good condition, I could have taken it all apart to clean the bearing race.  As it was, I just gave everything a good oiling and put it back together.

In this pic taken pre-rust removal, you can se the ball bearings

Under the handle, there are three screws, ...

... but these aren't the only thing holding the wood handle to the base.
Note the threads that the wood handle screws onto.

If I wanted to access the ball bearings, I could remove this C-clip

I opted not to scrape and refinish the two handles.  They were in pretty good shape already.  Not that they couldn't use some new finish - it just wasn't that urgent.

And that's it.  There's not too much involved in cleaning up a brace, especially one that is already in pretty good working order.

All cleaned up and ready to go

Catch you all next time.

Estate Sale Finds - Part 2

This is the second post about some tools I found at a couple of estate sales back in August.  Last week I wrote about the boring tools: brace, bits and an auger bit extension.  This post is about the three chisels in the lot.

The tools I got at two estate sales

Of the three chisels in the picture, the two smaller ones were made by Swedish maker E. A. Berg, the "Eskilstuna" brand.  Both are about 7/8" across the edge.  Remarkably, they were found at two different estate sales (and on the same day)!  You'd think I'd find them together!  These made me think of a guy in my tool collectors club, Jeppe Eskilsson, who died unexpectedly during the pandemic.  He was an avid collector of, and had tons of knowledge about, Swedish tools.  I enjoyed talking to him and wish I had spent more time with him.

I made a handle for the handle-less Berg chisel, just a simple shape.  But as I was rehabbing that chisel, I found that the blade had a serious crack in it.

E. A. Berg 7/8" chisel

The logo

The crack from the flat face ...

... and shown on the beveled side

Handled and sharpened

Due to the crack, I'll never use this chisel with a hammer or mallet, but it sharpened up nicely and can pare like nobody's business.

Paring end grain with the freshly sharpened Berg chisel

The second Berg chisel is a much heavier duty square-sided "firmer" chisel.  It has the same logo as the bevel-edged Berg chisel.  It's got a steel ring at the back end and this chisel has been bashed by hammers many, many times in its life.

E. A. Berg 7/8" firmer chisel

Unfortunately heavy pitting on the flat side

A stout steel ring at the back end

Got a nice mirror finish after flattening and sharpening

I had to spend a lot of time flattening this one to get down past the pitting.  It also required that I remove about 1/8" from the length to get past some unevenness and deeper pitting.  And because the chisel was fairly thick, it took quite a while on the hand crank grinder to create a new bevel.

This flat at this tip shows how much I had to grind back from the edge

The third chisel is a 2" bevel edged chisel with the mark "YALE" on it.  I tried to research this, but got conflicting results.  I found on eBay a chisel box labelled "C. I. Yale Mfg. Co., successors to G. I. Mix & Co., Yalesville, Conn, USA".  But I dead ended there.  There is also the Yale Lock Company, who've been around for many decades.  The logo on the chisel does not appear to be the same as logos used by the Yale Lock Mfg. Co., which later became the Yale and Towne Mfg. Co. that apparently made (and still makes) fork lifts.  But these Yale companies were founded by Linus Yale, so not the same as that C. I. Yale Mfg. Co.  Someone suggested that a known manufacturer could have made chisels for Yale Lock and stamped Yale's name and logo on it.  I'm guessing that's the case.

Anyway, this chisel had quite a side-to-side belly on it's flat side and it took a LOT of time and effort to flatten it.  But eventually it got there and sharpened up nicely.  Its handle had been broken off and apparently someone kept using the chisel with the tip of the handle still in the socket.  The broken handle had been hammered into the socket so much that not only was it very tough to remove, but also the rim of the socket was seriously deformed.  I filed the rim reasonably smooth and made a new handle for it.

The logo

As found: tip of handle hopelessly bashed into the socket

Drilled a hole and put in a screw to try to pull out the handle's tip (to no avail)

I had to drill out the handle's remains and followed up with a metal pick to pry loose some debris.  Filling the socket with water for several hours helped loosen the fibers and eventually I got it cleaned out.  But look at the rim of the socket!

Totally deformed from years of pounding from a metal hammer

And here it is after filing the rim

I made a new handle with the "London Pattern" from some scrap wood.  Fitting the tapered tip into the chisel's socket was fit/pare/fit/pare/fit/pare and repeat. because the interior of the socket was anything but a regular cone shape.  I marked the inside of the socket with sharpie to gauge progress and eventually got a good tight fit.

Turning an octagonal blank to the London pattern on the bungee lathe

Fit the end into the socket to find where it rubs more and file/rasp those marks away

This is the very tip of the chisel handle: it shows how out-of-round the hole was

The finished handle before the shellac finish, shown here next to a 1 1/2" chisel

Handle with shellac, then wax; edge sharpened

These chisels cleaned up nicely.  Aside from the bevel-edged Berg chisel with the big crack in it, they will be nice users.  But even that one should be useful for lighter paring work.  I shudder to think what might have become of these had I not seen them in a cabinet at those sales.  Probably the scrap heap, and that would have been a shame!

Estate Sale Finds, Part 1

Back in August or September, I found a few interesting things at two estate sales.  The combined haul was not huge, but included an almost complete set of auger bits, a 10" brace, an 18" auger bit extension, 3 chisels and some used and unused hacksaw blades.

The modest haul was still worth the time

This post will cover the boring tools and a follow-up post will cover the chisels.

The auger bits comprised an almost complete mixed-maker set.  They were all fairly rusty, but they cleaned up nicely using the rust removal formula I wrote about a couple months ago.  There was at least one bit that was too far gone to be useable - it's cutting spurs were bent horribly and there wouldn't have been enough left to be functional if I had filed them smooth.  A couple others had spurs that were about even with the cutting lips, so I filed the cutting lips down to allow the spurs to score wood before the lips would start removing material.  Filing the lips that much is not optimal, but at least they'll cut a hole now.  And if I'm careful, the hole will be reasonably clean.  Here are the sizes and makers or markings (a slash "/" denotes different lines of markings):

• 3/16     No markings  (unusual size - not sure I've seen one before)
• 4/16     ACRABORE / TAYLOR-GUEDE / MADE IN U.S.A.
• 4/16     RUSSELL JENNINGS
• 6/16     CLEAN CUT / TRADEMARK
• 6/16     No markings
• 6/16     GILMORE SPECIAL  (This one is beyond restoring)
• 7/16     ACRABORE / TAYLOR-GUEDE / MADE IN USA
• 8/16     IRWIN / USA
• 9/16     GREENLEE / ROCKFORD ILLINOIS / MADE IN USA / No. 22
• 10/16   IRWIN - U.S. of A.
• 13/16   GREENLEE / ROCKFORD ILLINOIS / MADE IN USA / No. 22
• 14/16   THE JAMES SWAN CO. / SEYMORE CT, U.S.A.
• 15/16   THE JAMES SWAN CO. / SEYMORE CT, U.S.A.
• Small Expansive Bit (Small Cutter Only)   CLARK / CONVALCO / EXPANSIVE / U.S.A.
• Large Expansive Bit (Long Cutter Only)   HSB & CO. / OUR VERY BEST

The missing sizes were 5/16", 11/16", 12/16" and 1".  By coincidence, I found a C. E. JENNINGS & CO. No 10, 11/16" bit in great condition at a garage sale within a couple weeks of finding these.

The former owner had made this neat holder from a big chunk of wood

A few of these bits needed remedial attention.  They hadn't been taken care of and had a hard life.

The Gilmore Special 3/8" bit looked like it had been down a kitchen
sink "dispose-all".  The spurs are hopelessly dubbed over and the
lead screw threads were beyond repair.

The 1/2" Irwin - USA bit was in rough shape.  The left spur has been
filed here, the right spur is dubbed over and is next up for filing.

Because I had to file the spurs down, the cutting lips also needed to be
filed so they wouldn't start cutting until after the spurs engage.
Not optimal, but it does work now.

Here's the lot of them, all cleaned up

The smaller of the two expansive bits was a Clark.  I'd never seen one so small.  It can bore holes from about 1/2" to 1" diameter.  The expansive bits I'd seen previously were for boring holes larger than a typical set of 1/4" to 1" diameters.  I'm guessing that this bit was made for people who didn't want to buy a full set of bits.

The Clark (below) and the H.S.B (above)

There is a problem with the Clark bit.  The spur on the moveable arm is bent inward a little.  This means that it might get stuck in a cut because the top of the spur cuts a smaller diameter than the rest of the spur will fit into.  I tried to straighten the spur, but didn't get it much better, if at all - I was too worried about breaking off the top of the spur.

You can see the problem in this picture.
Note how the tip of the spur bends in a little.

I tried tapping the spur to get it to proper shape, to no avail.
I may try to heat it to make it more malleable and then tap it.

The larger expansive bit is from Hibbert, Spencer and Bartlett and it will cut holes like all the other expansive bits I've seen: about 1 3/4" to 3".  The smaller cutting arm was not present.  The spur on the main body is a bit short - about at the same level as the cutting lip on the main body.  But it will still cut a hole because the spur on the moveable arm is plenty long.

The business end of the HSB expansive bit

I've sharpened both of these bits and they'll cut, but they could be better.

The auger bit extension that I found looks like it was user-made.  There is no maker's mark, it's not exactly straight and an auger bit just fits in the end with no locking mechanism at all.  It was really rusty as found, but I cleaned the rust off and it looks better.

The auger bit extension

The business end - looks to be hand forged

Probably hammered around another auger bit's square tapered shank

A defect

I bought this because recently when making a chair, I couldn't fit my other bit extensions through a 5/8" hole in the arm to bore a hole in the seat.  My other bit extensions have diameters of 11/16" where they hold an auger bit.  But this one has a diameter of about 9/16", so it would have worked in that instance.  Too bad I found it a couple weeks too late!

The 9/16" extension above, 11/16" extension below

Lastly, there is this 10" sweep brace.  I still need to clean it up, but I can tell that it'll clean up easily and work perfectly.  I don't know anything about this brand.

It's marked:
MOHAWK    MADE IN U.S.A.
SHELBURNE          NO. 1710

I can see the ball bearings in this ring below the handle

That's it for this post.  Next time I'll write about the chisels - they were quite interesting.