Oldtuleguy
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Nice set . Does the cap still hold on there?
Show your vintage Bridgeport tools!
- Thread starter LesserSon
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Picked up a pair of 7” combination pliers Sunday. Very pretty.
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Private Lugnutz
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That’s nice, Lugz.
I had posted a screw-cap multi-tool, and remembered I had another one. Also saw there was some discussion about them on the Millers Falls thread.
While I have ‘t begun conserving the BHMCo one, I started the other, which finally succumbed to intense scrutiny, and turns out to be “MF’D BY BUELL BRO \ CLINTON CONN”. The tool tips are so similar! But the holding mechanism is different.
I don’t know how I’m going to repair the damaged Buell without losing what’s left of its identity. The ferrule is split twice and the stamped letters on it are the only ID. I’m thinking I could slip a narrower ferrule under it for the strength needed to hold the split wood together around the holder’s shank...
I had posted a screw-cap multi-tool, and remembered I had another one. Also saw there was some discussion about them on the Millers Falls thread.
While I have ‘t begun conserving the BHMCo one, I started the other, which finally succumbed to intense scrutiny, and turns out to be “MF’D BY BUELL BRO \ CLINTON CONN”. The tool tips are so similar! But the holding mechanism is different.
I don’t know how I’m going to repair the damaged Buell without losing what’s left of its identity. The ferrule is split twice and the stamped letters on it are the only ID. I’m thinking I could slip a narrower ferrule under it for the strength needed to hold the split wood together around the holder’s shank...
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Private Lugnutz
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There has also been some recent discussion in a thread I started for a Fray's patent model I found a few weeks ago. Buell ads and examples have been posted in that thread, linked here.
Private Lugnutz
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Picked up these No. 136 6-1/2" combination pliers at Kent's yesterday. Not the prettiest with the nickel-plated finish wearing off in places, but I like the deeply stamped BHM logo behind the pivot. Same handle grip as the pliers LS is showing in post #83, but blank in the diamond shape.
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A good friend of mine gave me this hacksaw the other day. I can't find ANY info on it. Cant even find any pictures of the same thing online. Maybe someone here has some info on it? Bridgeport no. 30 hacksaw. I love the green handles, and the ribbed design inside the handles is interesting as well. I presume this is the same Bridgeport as B.H.M. Correct?
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Private Lugnutz
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Correct. Very nice find. They called that color "brilliant green." An apt description. Excerpt from 1953 catalog. There are no hacksaws whatsoever in the 1940 catalog, and this type of so-called enclosed "safety" pistol-grip handle was not prominent in the hacksaw industry until the late 1940's, so '53 is a pretty good estimate I'd say.
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Thanks for the catalog page Lugnutz!
Also forgot I had a BSA hatchet made by Bridgeport in my camping gear. One of the later models with the rubber handle and painted red. Seen better days, but it gets the job done.
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Also forgot I had a BSA hatchet made by Bridgeport in my camping gear. One of the later models with the rubber handle and painted red. Seen better days, but it gets the job done.
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
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Oldtuleguy
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Recently picked up a nearly-complete no25 Double End Wrench Kit. The extant DOEs were the Pyramids with no “thumbnail” depressions in the shank. (I used one to fill in the 8x10mm that was missing.) I think these are later than those.
For some reason, an unbranded 14x15mm DOE that looked like Penens was also in the clip, which duplicated two openings.
For some reason, an unbranded 14x15mm DOE that looked like Penens was also in the clip, which duplicated two openings.
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Private Lugnutz
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Whoa. That's cool.
Yes, they’re neat. But as I realized on the GS thread, NOT Bridgeport; New Britain.
For some reason, my brain repeatedly confuses those two manufacturers. I guess it’s the “B”, though that’s hardly a valid excuse.
For some reason, my brain repeatedly confuses those two manufacturers. I guess it’s the “B”, though that’s hardly a valid excuse.
Private Lugnutz
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Logo? What logo? I was so intrigued by the pistol grip I didn't even look! 
Private Lugnutz
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Private Lugnutz
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I dug a rusty wrench clip out of a box at a flea market on Friday morning (see Pic 1) hoping for the best, and I wasn't disappointed after clean-up (see Pic 2). Although it was too small for the loose sets of Bridgeport "open stock" wrenches I had in mind for it (see Pic 3), I swapped it out for the clip on a set of Bridgeport paneled wrenches, and I'm happy with the outcome (see Pic 4).
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d42jeep
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Whenever I see electrician’s screwdrivers at a sale I always check the blade length searching for the fairly rare GMTK specification 5-1/2” blade. The one I found at the first sale yesterday was spot on so I picked it up. I hadn’t seen any marked “Matchless” before. After following some dead end leads I found an eBay listing that showed a Bridgeport Matchless model. Sure enough, there it was in a 1940 Bridgeport catalog listing in the Archives.
-Don
-Don
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Private Lugnutz
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Nice find, Don. I answered your question on the GS thread earlier today, but you must have already jumped off to look around the net. There are a couple other examples floating around here on GJ. Here is my No. 97 Matchless HD machinists' screwdriver in the middle of a partial BHM group shot.
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Oldtuleguy
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d42jeep
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Oldtuleguy
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Private Lugnutz
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Yup. See the bottom of Page 48 in the 1940 cat. The artist's rendering includes the DROP FORGED / MADE IN U.S.A. marking in the middle of the shank. They didn't include any model number on the shank or sizes on the faces of the jaws, but that's not unusual. Look at the syntax of the model numbers in the list (e.g., "No. 23"), just like on the wrenches.
Yes, my No. 15C set of dual-size marked "Pyramid" wrenches (5 wrenches, cadmium finish) came in the same clip. And LS showed a set in post #92 on the last page. But the one I just found is considerably smaller. I ended up swapping it back and I am using the shorter clip on the mottled blue wrench set with the last wrench resting on top loose. It's just a little short to squeeze them all, but the "Pyramid" wrenches won't fit at all in it; the shanks are too wide.
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Oldtuleguy
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Hmmmm. Something came in that clip.
Private Lugnutz
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Yeah, some kind of 5-piece wrench set I reckon.
Provincial
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I picked up an interesting screwdriver today. It has a wood handle, is 11-3/4" long, flat tip is 11/32" wide and the shaft is 5/16" diameter. The ferrule is marked:
NONSKID NO.5
US PATENT
NO 1738405
I looked up the patent, and it was issued to Bridgeport Hardware Mfg. Co. on 03/28/1929. It is for grooves in the tip that engage the slot in the screw head to resist slipping out of the slot. These grooves are worn off of my screwdriver.
NONSKID NO.5
US PATENT
NO 1738405
I looked up the patent, and it was issued to Bridgeport Hardware Mfg. Co. on 03/28/1929. It is for grooves in the tip that engage the slot in the screw head to resist slipping out of the slot. These grooves are worn off of my screwdriver.
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d42jeep
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I picked up one of the cool Bridgeport X wrenches Saturday and cleaned it up yesterday.
-Don
-Don
Here's my Tom-A-Hawk. Lacks the earlier trademark on Lugz's example but as far as age, my 87 year old dad remembers his dad referring to that as the "box hammer" when he was a kid.
Looks like it saw some use on a painting project or two.
Looks like it saw some use on a painting project or two.
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four.cycle
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nice. 
I believe they were called a "crate opener", before everything came packed in corrugated paper boxes. (Can you imagine if everything today was packed up and shipped in wooden boxes?)
I had to satiate my curiosity on that one:
I believe they were called a "crate opener", before everything came packed in corrugated paper boxes. (Can you imagine if everything today was packed up and shipped in wooden boxes?)
I had to satiate my curiosity on that one:
Private Lugnutz
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Wow! I wonder just how old that is? I may have to track that down. I have never seen one marked like that. And look at the orientation of the through-shank. It's turned 90* from later specimens. Very cool piece, Arne.
I have a couple of them. I use the one with the blonde handle (probably from the late 1950's) fairly often, and it doesn't have the older BHM logo. The older one with the chipped tooth and the BHM logo stays put in the Lugzsonian. If I was lucky enough to find a TOM-A-HAWK, it would be under glass!
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I hadn't even noticed the thru shank difference between the examples!
The vintage ad that Fourcycle posted was 1930 so it must pre-date that.
Theres no patent number on mine, just the patent applied for statement. That may be a clue as to its age.
The vintage ad that Fourcycle posted was 1930 so it must pre-date that.
Theres no patent number on mine, just the patent applied for statement. That may be a clue as to its age.
Private Lugnutz
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Yes, I saw the PAT APPLD FOR marking, and I have the 1930 catalog (oldest available in public domain, c/o Mark Stansbury's ITCL...), I just haven't Google Booksed it yet for older trade mag ads or tried to find the patent.
EDIT: According to DATAMP, their earliest crate or box tool was patented in 1908 (the "Matchless Opener") and improved in 1913 (the "Hustler"). While those had enough of the same look and feel as yours (and later examples), with a through shank, wooden handles, and a claw and hammer, to be identified as an ancestor, neither one is your tool. So, I would guess yours came along between 194 and 1930.
As a side note, the use of the word "Opener" in these tools wasn't as comprehensive as it could be. The same tool was used to close up the crates again. They were reusable.
EDIT: According to DATAMP, their earliest crate or box tool was patented in 1908 (the "Matchless Opener") and improved in 1913 (the "Hustler"). While those had enough of the same look and feel as yours (and later examples), with a through shank, wooden handles, and a claw and hammer, to be identified as an ancestor, neither one is your tool. So, I would guess yours came along between 194 and 1930.
As a side note, the use of the word "Opener" in these tools wasn't as comprehensive as it could be. The same tool was used to close up the crates again. They were reusable.
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Private Lugnutz
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That didn't take long. While this doesn't nail it down (pun definitely intended), I think it means yours is at least as old as 1915. The print in the ad doesn't include the name TOM-A-HAWK, but you can clearly see it on the tool. This is going to prompt me to read the actual 1913 patent, because even though they don't look exactly alike (the patent looks more like the tool below it...), the TOM-A-HAWK may have used the same patent as the HUSTLER.
