H.D. Smith Company, Plantsville, CT

[Old but slow]

“Another "I didn't know they made them," which brings me to the most important ask. Do you have any catalogs? The only thing available on IA/ITCL are some ads or a few pages from hardware store catalogs.”

I do have a catalog of their hand tools and a catalog of their “carriage work” products that they produced before the tools and before Mr. Ford wiped out the carriage business. The hand tool catalog is sold as a reprint and easily accessible on eBay. I have researched and also have copies of most of their tool patents. This was really fun research.

Some info: http://alloy-artifacts.org/hd-smith-company.html

 

[Old but slow]

Almost forgot- here is an article that included parts of my collection: https://www.myrecordjournal.com/New...urer-in-demand-with-collectors.html#gallery-5

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I do have a catalog of their hand tools and a catalog of their “carriage work” products that they produced before the tools and before Mr. Ford wiped out the carriage business.

Are they the 1920 (No. 25) and the 1893? Those two are in the Internet Archive, International Tools Catalog Library, linked here.

here is an arrival that included parts of my collection

Neat article! And a very nice mention for you and your collection. You even rate a quote!

 

[Old but slow]

Neat article! And a very nice mention for you and your collection. You even rate a quote!

yeah that was unexpected, I was giving the guy some pics. We came together when he wrote an article about the new owner of the H.D. Smith building who was planning on converting it into a brewery. I wanted to see if I could go scavenging prior which I’m sure you understand And appreciate. Didn’t happen and we talked tools and I sent him some pics.

here is a pic of the books that I have, appear to be same

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I wanted to see if I could go scavenging prior which I’m sure you understand

Oh yeah!!

here is a pic of the books that I have, appear to be same

Yessir. Thanks.

 

[Mark Stansbury]

This was news to me as it's on my catalog wish list. I had to do a "perfect handle" text search to find it. Someone else uploaded this and it's a reprint by Roger K. Smith. Most of his reprints are copyrighted and he seems to have sold/transferred rights on many of them to Astragal Press. I do not see a copyright on this one but don't wish to infringe. Here is the link, though:

The H. D. Smith & Co's Drop Forged Tools. No 25

I did buy of couple of Roger's originals on eBay a few years ago. They were ones he had not reprinted, like William Johnson of Newark.

 

[d42jeep]

I found this Perfect Handle monkey wrench at an estate sale this morning. It will be a nice addition to my monkey wrench display in the basement. This will be my first H.D. Smith example.
Edit…..Cleaned up a bit
-Don

 

[Jacobs976]

Here's a 'The H.D. Smith & Co. Triple Lever".

 

[Private Lugnutz]

That's a beaut! Thanks for adding it to the thread.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

By the way, I saw you mention "losing the bluing" on your original thread.

Most methods of bluing involve the creation of an intentional oxidation layer, and Evaporust will definitely strip anything with oxides in it, rust, bluing and even old paint, but before you get too upset about it, I don't recall ever seeing an H.D. Smith tool, my own, or any of the tools upthread, including monkey wrenches, hammers, pry bars, and all kinds of screwdrivers, with any kind of blued, parkerized, black oxide or japanned or enameled finish. If they were heavily blued or finished with black oxide, I would think that many found examples would have some remaining. I do see some scattered remains of a black substance on yours now that all that thick rust is gone, but whether that was original or not is an open question.

I just looked through the general hardware store ads (1914, 1915) and HD. Smith catalog (1920) that are available on Internat Archive, linked here for your convenience, and there is no mention of any tool being blued or finished with anything at all.

But I am no expert and I would be interested in hearing from the other H.D. Smith owners above if they've ever noticed it before, and I'd be most curious to see what @PLANofMAN (see post #41, page 2) and @Old but slow (see posts 74 - 77 above) have to say. They have massive collections.

 

[4xdog]

My H.D. Smith monkey wrench (presented upthread) has been in our family since new, from my grandfather to my grandmother to me. Never refinished, and no evidence of bluing or any other original finish.

I'm with you on that, Lugz.

 

[Jacobs976]

By the way, I saw you mention "losing the bluing" on your original thread.

Most methods of bluing involve the creation of an intentional oxidation layer, and Evaporust will definitely strip anything with oxides in it, rust, bluing and even old paint, but before you get too upset about it, I don't recall ever seeing an H.D. Smith tool, my own, or any of the tools upthread, including monkey wrenches, hammers, pry bars, and all kinds of screwdrivers, with any kind of blued, parkerized, black oxide or japanned or enameled finish. If they were heavily blued or finished with black oxide, I would think that many found examples would have some remaining. I do see some scattered remains of a black substance on yours now that all that thick rust is gone, but whether that was original or not is an open question.

I knew any coatings wouldn't stand much of a chance against evaporust but for the shorter soaks I've had some survive the process. Main thing was getting the hard rust broke down though and it did the job so I'm happy with the results.

It was blued on the inside panels for sure but only the panels so it was probably just some cold bluing or something else(maybe a thin coat of metallic blue paint) by the previous owner(s) to make the panels stand out.

Black substance is just bits of converted rust from age that were more committed to sticking around. Hard spots were taken care of but the dark black rust is more resistant and doesn't hurt the tool so I left it instead of scratching up the metal getting it off.

 

[Leviton]

Here's a 'The H.D. Smith & Co. Triple Lever".

That, is a beautiful tool.

 

[RTM]

Here is one of mine, just waiting to go to the garage. Just realized I've never posted any of my other PH tools, some becaues they aren't marked (many look alike screwdrivers), and one cuz I have not idea where it is (valve lifter, no chain). So we will try to break the ice with this one, bought at the Flea at Alameda in early April.

This is marked 1/2", with a 7/8" opening, forged in is The H.D. Smith & CO on one side, and Perfect handle Patented on the flip side

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Nice!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

This screwdriver has had a hard life. The handle scales are mangled and I'm pretty sure it's been shortened. All that's legible of the H.D. SMITH & CO. branding is & Co. and all that's left of the "PERFECT HANDLE" trademark is HANDLE".

 

[HeelSpur]

6" nippers that needed a serious cleaning.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Nice. The early Circle-S logo.

 

[Fred Knox]

I picked up four more Perfect Handles over the weekend. You can probably tell which ones they are from the photos. I’ve restored some of the collection, but have a number left in the queue!

The first photo is just my H.D. Smith ones, while the second photo is of the “copy-cats” after the company went under - J.J. Ryan, Lenox, Pexto, Worth, Dunlap, Tobrin, Federal, Germany and Irwin. The 4” one is unmarked, but may be a H.D. Smith screwdriver after all.

EDIT: Third photo is of my users, which somehow missed the the photo op.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

The first photo is just my H.D. Smith ones,

Nice collection, Fred.

 

[Mark914]

I was reading the thread , I just picked up a Perfect Handle screwdriver from HD smith with the “barber pole “ rolling stamp. Any info on when this was done ? Later in production or early on ?
Some really nice HD tools on here. Being in CT, I do often see the old pipe wrenches at garage sales.

 

[tontotheindian9]

I love those catalog illustrations. Beautiful work. Also, not sure if it's appropriate here. There's an H.D. Smith nail set up for sale on ebay. SharpenEzy Series.

Very Rare H.D. Smith & Co. "SharpenEzy" 4.5" Nail Set Pat Applied For 1913 ish | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Very Rare H.D. Smith & Co. "SharpenEzy" 4.5" Nail Set Pat Applied For 1913 ish at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[d42jeep]

Here are the two I currently own.
-Don

 

[Fred Knox]

I picked up a relatively hard-to-find H.D. Smith No. 646 offset slip joint pliers in pretty good condition. I think @RagTopTA also has a pair.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I picked up a relatively hard-to-find H.D. Smith No. 646 offset slip joint pliers in pretty good condition.

Indeed, my apologies for not commenting sooner here! I remember this was part of your...

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!

...haul on the Garage Sale thread!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I had a modestly nice find myself yesterday morning that I am only getting around to posting today. These #660 series screwdrivers, with the spoon-like depression effect, meant for a thumb and forefinger grip, patented (1,677,572) on July 17, 1928, aren't particular rare or very early, but I didn't have one in my collection heretofore. This is a cute little OAL ******.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thrilled to find this 18-incher sitting in the midst of a table of junk tools at the flea market this morning. Looks like someone used it as a hammer, unfortunately, but I'm not complaining, it's one I don't have in my collection, which is up to nine (9) now, and they're not common!

 

[B Halverson]

I have a number of "Perfect" H.D. Smith tools in the garage I can put up here. If they are in nice shape and cheap I will grab them as they are well made and useful tools that absolutely deserve their own thread.

 

[four.cycle]

H.D. Smith "Perfect Handle" thread

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Picked this up last week and didn't have a chance to post it yet.



It's my second monkey wrench, different OAL, thankfully. Unlike the first one, which is shown with it below...



...it has a logo I have never seen before.



I have not been able to find another example. Not on any other H.D. SMITH monkey wrench or any other H.D. SMITH tool, for that matter, here on this thread, on AA, or anywhere else on the interwebs. It smacks of late production to me, no patent citations or dates, etc, like other, probably earlier logos, and it also seems defensive and protective, as if the utility patent had run out and they were calling out all the other copycats. But I plan to look into it further.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I currycombed dozens of trade mags on Google Books for "Perfect Handle" ads and articles between 1906 and 1924.

H.D. Smith was using only the phrase "Perfect Handle", never accompanied by the word "original", as late as the August 1922 issue of Hardware World, linked here. The earliest example that I can find of the phrase "original Perfect Handle" in ad text is the December 1923 issue of Motor Truck trade mag, linked here.

Judging by the January 1924 issue of Hardware World, it looks like it didn't take them too long to introduce it into the branding itself. This illustrated logo is the die-stamped logo that is on the monkey wrench I recently found.



This all makes perfect sense, since it coincides with the departure of William S. Thomson, vice-president and general manager of H.D. Smith, who left to form the Tobrin Tool Company, which immediately started making and selling screwdrivers with a through-shank and integrated wooden handle pieces!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I have a few Tobrin perfect handle type knockoffs and I was planning to put this one, found just last week, with the others on the 'Show us your wood (screwdrivers)' thread, but for context, since I was just talking about them above, here it is, made just a stone's throw away from the H.D. Smith plant by the company their former GM left to establish. That "4" on the blade is the shank length, not OAL. They liked the barber pole style roll stamping that you can also find on some early H.D. Smith screwdrivers.

 

[Ricky Joe]

This is an H. D. Smith pair of pliers with a nice handy offset that was convenient today. Thought I’d post, since there has been recent interest in the company.

 

[Ricky Joe]

Forgot pictures

 

[B Halverson]

Not much to add here, just more screwdrivers. But when I was taking apart the pedals on a very old bicycle I once had the largest H.D. Smith machinist driver was a perfect fit for the bearing cap. I keep the machinist drivers in one of the top drawers of my tool cabinet, the other Perfect driver trio I recently came across while cleaning and reorganizing the pile of junk in the very bottom of the chest of drawers, I never had much use for them;

 

[d42jeep]

I was very happy to run into this 8” Perfect Handle pipe wrench at an estate sale yesterday. Another customer had it in his pile of tools and very kindly let me purchase it after I expressed interest in it. It’s the first PH pipe wrench I’ve run across at sales.
It has already moved into the pipe wrench display in the basement.
-Don

 

[d42jeep]

In the space of three weeks I’ve gone from owning zero Perfect Handle pipe wrenches to now having two. Here is the 14” model I found at yesterday’s estate sale.
-Don
Before
Slightly cleaned up (no evaporust).

 

[d42jeep]

I finished de-rusting the 14” example and treated it with Fluid Film. Here are both of mine side by side in the basement.
-Don

 

[MisterEd]

H.D. Smith Perfect Handle Solid Head Off-Set (15 degrees) 5/8 Nut Wrench, Opening 1 1/16 Inches.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

H.D. Smith Perfect Handle Solid Head Off-Set (15 degrees) 5/8 Nut Wrench, Opening 1 1/16 Inches.

Nice find! That's one I have not run into in the wild yet.