BROWNBILT TOOLs, Brown Company

[Shelbylex]

Brown Company of Syracuse, NY which made Brownbilt tools operated between 1908 -1920s (limited knowledge exists)
This is the first time I see one of them in real life. Last image is from April 1922 issue of Automobile Dealer and Repairer (as posted in Alloy Artifacts)

Link to ally artifacts
http://alloy-artifacts.org/other-makers.html#brown

Please share what you have from this company!

Thanks!

 

[Shelbylex]

Good morning!
Decided to bump it up
Are these tools that rare that nobody has one?

 

[woody 73]

Sigh what the op wants...

I want cigars rolled on the thighs of virgin women.
I want the vintage tool section to move at a slower pace which might never happen as it is (only getting faster).
I want to see oh my gosh my 1980's tool box is so vintage (moved asap).
I want the members to move the wrong posts to other sections (because the powers to be are tired of me and I hate being the bad cop).
I want Free health care for everyone.
I want more peace in the World.
I want to see more health problems cured.

Last but not least OP because the Brown tool company had a short time span, I have not seen any of their tools (not what you were looking for sorry OP).

 

[Shelbylex]

Good afternoon, Woody73

I want cigars rolled on the thighs of virgin women - can be arranged - matter of price
I want the vintage tool section to move at a slower pace which might never happen as it is (only getting faster).- impossible as there are too many interesting tools...
I want to see oh my gosh my 1980's tool box is so vintage (moved asap) - matter of price and condition
I want the members to move the wrong posts to other sections (because the powers to be are tired of me and I hate being the bad cop) - impossible. People rarely can follow the rules
I want Free health care for everyone - this will not happen in USA any time soon. If you look at how much money CEOs, administration, financiers, insurance companies, pharm companies, etc are making - you will see why with our spendings our mortality is the same as in Cuba. Return the power to doctors, limit nurse practitioners replacing them and playing doctors, get rid of financiers, let small private practices thrive - care will be much cheaper. Just billing is around 20% of expences from what I heard, administration - we spend twice the amount of any other country...
I want more peace in the World - impossible. People will power need to fight to make more money for them and their friends
I want to see more health problems cured - happening every day. Just look at the progress in medicine. We can now replace valves without cracking the chest, transplant organs, etc. well, technically it's not curing - its replacing one problem with another.
However, healthier food (less chemical additives, smaller portions, etc), lifestyles, exercise, etc will prevent a lot of problems in our population which is affected by obesity, high blood pressure, inactivity, diabetes, etc. Did you notice how our grandparents used to be healthier than us?

Well, and all I hope is to get more pictures of Brownbilt (much smaller problem) : )

I sae one for sale on Ebay, but nothing else... May be we will get more from our vast collector power!!!

 

[RTM]

That short time period, broad name, coupled with Brownbilt shoes being everywhere, makes it hard.

Kinda like looking up Smith, a royal pain to get exactly what you want, lots of manual labor for me.

 

[Shelbylex]

Well, RTM, I am looking for automotive tools here. If you open your toolbox and move all the shoes to the side, there might be an old looking tool there. I know, as you mentioned, it is a lot of manual labor. If you have a wrench or other tool by the company, you take a 30 minute break, take out the camera and after another 2 minutes of hard work share the image with GJ members.
If not, then we just wait if anybody else might have something. I suspect that if any members have it, they would be from NY state

 

[RTM]

Sorry, I meant the work online searching was lots of manual work.

I can be pretty sure my Calif acquired tools won't have it. Grampa's from Ohio is an easy search, one small box is all that's left. Will look eventually, but won't be for a few hours.

 

[Shelbylex]

Good evening, RTM. I know what you meant - just messing with you a little.
I would greatly appreciate if you had time to look. I got this tool in MA randomly on a yard sale as part of a take it all deal and got interested. May be with all our members we can find some tools.
Alloy artifacts had picture of 2 tools (one incomplete). I sent them a picture of mine, but they did not add it. May be I should clean it better and try again.

 

[Shelbylex]

I wish I knew who bought this one in 2019 on e-bay.
I do not know if there is any good way of looking this up... (poor quality pic from internet, but the middle wrench is Brownbilt)

 

[Shelbylex]

Small update

 

[Gmonkee]

A whole page of Ford T specific tools. Walden and others had very similar offerings.

 

[Shelbylex]

It would be hard to put the full set together and take some time. Hopefully I get lucky with sales and extra tools members of GJ would consider sparing (not as much interest in this brand over the years - Walden set would be much more realistic to put together...)

 

[Gmonkee]

Chasing unicorns like Brownbilt is a difficult quest.
There wasn't much interest in the brand in 1920 and the T still had another decade of popularity ahead.

Maybe in the east coast NY area grubbing through old guys estate trash piles for something so specific.

The T specific tools in general by any brand lost usefulness in the mid 30's and really didn't apply to much else. Most got lost in ww2 scrap drives.

I have a T specific speeder with a 9/16 socket and long extension by Walden.
It's not worn out despite being a popular size socket for decades after.
My 1920ish Snapper 5/8 socket wrench is a top tier T mechanics tool that cost a weeks pay back then. It also was T kit specific and a common size but isn't worn.
Sometimes you win.

I found a Neverstall multitool from 1912 in a collection of an octogenarian in NY and imported it to Mexico long ago.
A 5 dollar useless tool east coast specific, made for three years. 100 years ago.
I had to adapt a screw adjuster from a wrecked Ford type adjustable to make it complete again.
The shipping was far more than any value it has. But I got one!

 

[Leviton]

Small update

Great find. Does it have a date?

 

[Shelbylex]

Great find. Does it have a date?

Unfortunately not
My guess 1910s-1920s

 

[LesserSon]

So it seems I’ve joined the quest. My current contribution is a 3718 9/16” Tee, which I found in late 2020. I didn’t appreciate its rarity then, and have’t actively searched for Brownbilt, nor particularly Tees. I see Walden and Mossberg pretty frequently in the venues I haunt, so there may be Brown mixed in that I’ve overlooked. I will keep an eye out for more.

 

[LesserSon]

I have a few works in progress that may relate, like tubular socket sets,
haphazard Mossberg,

Walden.
I’m not married to any of it.

 

[LesserSon]

These may be possible substitutions.

Walden 5810 connecting rod wrench (5/8), Walden 1020 uni tee (5/8), unbranded 633 three-way (5/8x5/8x1/2), Walden 2716 tee (1/2).

 

[LesserSon]

Looking at your saved sale photo, I guess the rule is metric, so the ratcheting wrench is a little under 9”? I’ll keep an eye out for that, too.

 

[Shelbylex]

So it seems I’ve joined the quest. My current contribution is a 3718 9/16” Tee, which I found in late 2020. I didn’t appreciate its rarity then, and have’t actively searched for Brownbilt, nor particularly Tees. I see Walden and Mossberg pretty frequently in the venues I haunt, so there may be Brown mixed in that I’ve overlooked. I will keep an eye out for more.

I guess I need to learn how to collect quietly so that I would not raise too much interest in the things I collect : )

Please let me know if you find doubles of anything, LesserSon

 

[LesserSon]

Not what I meant - you are welcome to any of these if you need them.

 

[Gmonkee]

Yup. Publicity brings up a lot of attention.

The good of Ford tools is there are a boatload of them out there and most are near worthless except to dedicated collectors. Even "rare" ones crop up in numbers in other places.
I mentioned the '32 V8 head wrench a MTFCA member couldn't find. I have two in good condition. I can't find a single hub wrench but got two of a one year only wrench. Weird.

I ended up giving my antique tool collection to my son a few years ago keeping only a few more unusual ones for a bit of time more.

The dynamic of a place like GJ is that something can be near worthless and forgotten today, a bit of asking around brings up 400 of them at ever increasing prices.

One thing I might suggest for Brownbilt is to get an identical Walden and compare them side by side.
You might find a rebrand of yesteryear. I suspect it from the Ford T bulletins, your Brownbilt page and the Walden catalog.
Just a hunch, I have found it before.

 

[Shelbylex]

Not what I meant - you are welcome to any of these if you need them.

Thank you, LesserSon! If at any point you decide to part with the 3718 T handle or any other Brownbilt tools, please let me know (I PM's you my phone last night).

I actually contacted a lot of FM sellers for the tools which looked like they could be Brownbilt over the last 1-2 weeks. Unfortunately no luck...

 

[Shelbylex]

One thing I might suggest for Brownbilt is to get an indentical Walden and compare them side by side.
You might find a rebrand of yesteryear. I suspect it from the Ford T bulletins, your Brownbilt page and the Walden catalog.
Just a hunch, I have found it before.

Gmonkee, you are probably onto something here: a lot of these tools look similar. If I see Walden-Worcester wrenches which are identical in size to Brownbilt one I have, I will try to buy them on a yard sale and will post side by side picture here.

 

[Shelbylex]

I got a great gift from LesseSon today. THANK YOU FOR JOINING THE QUEST AND ADDING TO THE BOARD!!!





3 present, 13 to go!