Robert & Ralph Greenlee

Interesting story their Father Edmund Greenlee was a farmer that created a line of barrel making machines in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. Fantastic timing on his part because Edwin Drake drilled the very first oil well only a few miles from their house and what did he need for storing his oil ? Barrels and lots of them.

His two twin sons born in 1838 became proficient barrel makers by the of age 20 in 1858. Finding the need to expand the business they moved to Chicago in 1862. If their name sounds familiar to some of you wood workers they came up with the first hollow Chisel Mortise bits that we still use today. You can read more in the following links; I am not sure if they still make any products in America last I looked all the hand tools were made in Taiwan.

Today I just happened to be at a garage sale and I found this wooden box upon opening it I found a very nice set of Greenlee vintage Auger bits and the price for the box took me by surprise because the nice man only wanted $5.00 for everything, that does not happen very often.

http://www.greenlee.com/about-us/historypage.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenlee

http://www.davistownmuseum.org/bioGreenlee.html

http://www.vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=403

http://vintagemachinery.org/MfgIndex/detail.aspx?id=403&tab=6

Good info and nice buy.

That set of bits is gorgeous Woody! I'm not much of a wood worker, but I always keep an eye open for any quality bits at the flea market. Unfortunately I usually only see rusty modern junk.

Funny that I should find this at the flea market today. Once I saw it I knew I was not leaving without it. Has knockouts for wall mounting that have never been used. It is missing two bits unfortunately.

Sam very nice set!

I did find some set information on page #18 in case anyone is interested:

http://blackburntools.com/articles/rose-tools-catalog-archives/pdfs/greenlee-1941-no-33.pdf

a bump to update the history of Greenlee.

Greenlee was a subsidiary of Textron, now they are a subsidiary of Emerson (who just happens to own Ridgid)

"ST. LOUIS, April 18, 2018 – Emerson (NYSE: EMR) today announced it has signed an agreement to purchase the Tools and Test Equipment (Tools & Test) business of Textron (NYSE: TXT) for $810 million. Tools & Test is a leading manufacturer of electrical and utility tools, diagnostics, and test and measurement instruments with strong global distribution and highly respected brands, including Greenlee and Klauke. The acquisition, joined with Emerson’s Ridge Tool Company, creates a global $1 billion professional tools business with the broadest offering for mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractors. Emerson expects the acquisition to be accretive to earnings in fiscal 2019 and immediately accretive to cash flow."

https://www.emerson.com/en-us/news/corporate/acquisition-textron

Learn About Greenlee's 150 Years of Service
https://www.greenlee.com/about-us/index.html

COO of the Textron Greenlee adjustable wrench I purchased from Cripe states is Taiwan.

I found this rusty Greenlee wood chisel on Saturday with a lot of antique woodworking tools. I decided to clean it up before adding it to the wood chisel drawer.
-Don
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After