Davies Manufacturing Co./Davies

This is a company with some missing History on the World wide web so let me begin by saying I do not know if the following hand tools are vintage or not ?

As a side note special thanks too GJ member twertsy for locating the obit notice we now have a starting date of 05/04/1946 by the founder Mr. Robert I. Davies.

What I can tell you is that I bought them in a small collection of vintage tools in a cardboard box. I can also tell you the Quality of the stampings are over the top in quality not like todays laser etchings.

This is what I know the Davies Manufacturing Co. of Hampton, Iowa is run by Kathryn Davies. They make some hand tools in the line of punch and chisel sets and perhaps some other tools?

Ok now for some guessing on my part, after seeing an Army web-site, (update it is not an Army site but a contractor web-site with special thanks to GJ member retdac) My thinking is off course they did not have any army contracts. I was thinking maybe the US Army had a procurement and the Davies MFG. Co. got the contract to supply the army with punch & chisel sets but that is not the case at all.

Another fine quality hand tool to keep your eyes open for and perhaps if we have any GJ members out there in Iowa they can share with us what they know about this Company.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and what few links I could find:

http://www.trueyellow.com/US/Hampton/Iowa/Davies+Mfg+Co/2787177/info.asp

http://www.the-online-market.com/Business_USA/Iowa/Davies_Manufacturing_Co-Po_Box_116-Hampton.phtml

http://www.armyproperty.com/manufacturer/26274

http://www.armyproperty.com/product/26274/124RC/

http://www.parttarget.com/Davies-Mfg-Co_nsn-parts_124RC.html

May 4, 1946. Sorry for the clips but I did it from my phone.







Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk

Woody, none of those are US Army websites though it's easy to mistake one of them for such. It appears "armyproperty. com" is a contractor providing logistics software to lower level units. I don't know anything other than their "About Us" page.

All US Dept. of Defense (DoD) agencies and military branches will have ".mil". Other US gov't organizations will have ".gov" with no state listed before ".gov". Yet it must be noted that the Federal Reserve is in fact a private organization with ".org". However its Board of Governors (.gov) are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

I do appreciate what you and Todd do for us though. Thank you.

With special thanks to both twertsy and retdac I revised the first post with their information to give a better understanding of the Davies company.

Whether Davies has a current or recent contract is not indicated on the armyproperty.com site. There probably has been at least one somewhere in the past. There may be occasional contracts. It is also possible that some lower military unit might make a "local purchase" (including what amounts to "mailorder") from Davies rather than going through the standard supply system if certain conditions are met.

We often think of military contracts for big items like tanks, ships, planes. But there is a heck of a lot of smaller, unglamorous stuff that is contracted. And while each service has items it "owns" (has primary logistical responsibility to obtain/manage), most of the smaller items (parts and a few tools) deemed "common" to the services are managed by Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) which is ".mil".

Most common type items, including hand tools, that are, or could be, used by the military as well as other Federal agencies are managed by the General Services Administration (GSA) which is ".gov".

The point being that the chisels, punches, and other tools Davies makes most likely come under National Stock Numbers (NSNs - 13 digits) managed ("owned" in a sense) by GSA and anybody in the Federal Gov't, military included, who wants to get some for his agency/unit has to requisition them from GSA who will hopefully contract a batch for the entire Federal Gov't to get a lower price per item. Same idea for items managed by DLA. Again, there are some exceptions for local purchase. And there are some instances where a service gets to "keep" an item that would normally be managed by GSA or DLA.

A bit of history: During WWII (and before), each branch of service, Army (Air Force) and Navy (Marines) had their their own items designated by part number. This also meant that for example, a 1/4" flat tip screwdriver with a 4" shank made by whoever could have two or more different part numbers assigned by different services AND be contracted by two or more of those branches which made for a lot of duplication with resultant extra cost. Remember this refers to tens of thousands of items (tools, parts, supplies), not just one specific screwdriver.

So after the war a lot of changes were gradually made in Gov't logistics, particularly military, some of which were the creation GSA, DLA, Federal Stock Numbers (FSNs - 11 digits; later became NSNs with the addition of a country code).

FWIW, using that punch part#, 309, plus Cage Code 26274 found here: http://www.armyproperty.com/manufacturer/26274
"26274 309" gets us NSN 5120-01-337-0674 with other info here: https://www.nsncenter.com/NSN/5120-01-337-0674

Now what else did you not want to know?

Zombie thread reply! Found this on the floor of an old tool shed on a farm I'm helping clean up. Taken with permission. Cleaned up pretty nice after getting the rust and pee smell off. Completely usable. I'm guessing there's more buried in the dirt nearby.

Sent from my SM-G950U using The Garage Journal mobile app

Zombie post reply...Get on your hands and knees ASAP and keep looking for more of them!

Just got these from SATCO on eBay. I was looking at the Mayhew solid punch set but decided to go with some NOS.