Brown & Sharpe

When you have spent more than thirty years working in industrial sales, calling on companies that form or cut metals and plastics, you’ll have seen an abundance of precision hand tools and gages.

Ames, Van Kueren, Lufkin, Starrett, Standard, Brown & Sharpe, Mahr, Federal and Boice are all common names to a machinist. These companies produced gaging and precision hand tools, some for over one hundred years. While companies change hands or merge, most of their names are still used on gaging products today.

My first, and they say you’ll never forget your first, was a micrometer with ruby tipped anvils. It was presented to me by a retiring salesman and owner of the company I worked for. It sat in the drawer of my desk for nearly twenty years till I finally brought it home. By then I had started to collect other gaging items. I don’t remember my second one but the accumulation grew quickly as I joined Wifey for weekend jaunts through flea markets, garage sales and antique stores.

Since I once worked for one of these gage companies, I was always on the lookout for their logo on products. But when at a yard sale and a box full of various precision tools of various brands are offered for only a few dollars, I’m hard pressed to pass them up.  OK, I’m frugal alright, when some very nice vintage examples have crossed my path with prices too high, it’s usually because the seller has priced a new one and considers his or her item still usable I’ll take a pass.

Eventually a machinist case (felt lined wooden tool box) was added to store my growing collection, then later another case was found sitting at the back of an antique booth, barely visible under some vintage clothing, for a fraction of its worth. (Wifey thought it was being sold as a jewelry box, but not big enough for her costume jewerly.)

More gages, a few given to me by clients, others from friends, some in their own wooden boxes. When it was getting out of hand, I decided to only pick out very special examples.

Of course I’ve also found old catalogs from some of these companies. Interesting on several levels, as they show the types of equipment offered, logos and font styles giving a clue to the age of your find.  Catalogs also give clues to the usefulness of some unusual configurations made to facilitate difficult measurements.  Age on some mechanical gages such as micrometers may be difficult to determine since many styles were made for decades without design change.

What to look for with this type of collectible, and I always consider the saleability of the items I purchase.  After all, any collectible I have may wind up on ebay when I tire of the collection.  Lufkin Rule Co. of Saginaw, MI produced a line of steel tape measures and 100 ft impregnated fabric tape measures in leather bound cases that have sold well.  Student tool sets in soft case with micrometers, ruler combination square, center gage dividers and center punch, when complete are a treasure. Micrometers in sizes over six inches in boxed sets create a wonderful wall display.

I own this unique Universal Indicator No.199A from Lufkin, an early example of the “test indicator” in a rocket shaped body.  Special application gages by their very nature are also collectible.

The gage block pictured is inscribed with the company logo “Ford”, and was purchased in Indiana at a flea market.  I don’t think the seller ever saw the inscription nor knew the function of the “metal block”.

Customer names, some for OEM’s, appeared on many gages, especially dial indicators. Manufacturers like Federal and Starrett often screen printed a company name on these indicators, as they were attached to other gaging fixtures or contraptions as the indicating device. Large companies had their own name imprinted to show ownership and cut down on “losses”.

Micrometers under seven inches, dial Indicators, vernier or dial calipers, steel straight edge rules, machinists squares, inside micrometers, micrometer depth gages, scribes, center punches, feeler gages and thread calipers, all are plentiful in the market place.

Boice, Federal, Standard, brands of bore gages and snap gages are still being widely used in industry today, even with 20 or more years of service behind them.  Some of these items display easily, sitting on a shelf, in cases or on stands.   Larger vernier calipers and great big micrometers make great wall displays, as I have seen in quality department offices.

And what is the prize of my collection?  Could be this wonderful boxed test indicator set, or the Ford gage block.  No, it’s this dial indicator, looking rather normal and average till you look at its former owner, Packard Motor Car Company.

If your collection is as unusual as some of mine, please share it with me, and the rest of our readers on Collectors Quest. Remember its your community for collectibles.