Original Phillips?

[NimbleSquirrel]

So I’m new here, thanks for any future help, I collect(I’d use that term loosely) old/vintage tools. I mostly restore and use them. I’m a mechanic by trade and carpenter/cabinet maker by passion. Love old mechanic tools and wood working tools. I’ve recently acquired quite a bit of old machining tools and random drivers and so on. So I came across this one screw driver that according to a blog post is the original Phillips screwdriver. I can’t for the life of me find any other examples of it online, except for the actual patent info and original patent documents. But no other examples of the actual screwdriver except that one blog post with two pictures. See link http://thevalleywoodworker.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-many-faces-of-phillips.html?m=1

So here are the pictures of the screw driver I have and I downloaded the patent images as well I’ll attach. If anyone can either confirm what that blogpost says is true and from what I can tell mine matches the patent perfectly, is this actually one of the original first Phillips drive screw drivers? Probably won’t sell it if it is cause I think that’s amazing but I also don’t want to restore it then and devalue it. Which comes to the next question would anyone have any idea on the actual worth of one of these if any?

Would like to say thanks in advance for any enlightenment been reading these pages for some time now but have never posted.

 

[four.cycle]

welcome to the site!

(I don't know anything about screwdrivers, but somebody here does.)

RE: " don’t want to restore it then and devalue it"

I highly recommend you take a look HERE: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum...ads-faq-helpful-hints-and-handy-links.434502/

scroll down a bit until you see "Cleaning and De-Rusting"

 

[woody 73]

Interesting...

Some more information for you on this nice cold night.

Henry F. Phillips Patent # 2,046,837

Sure we tool Geeks know the name, but just in case a few of you do not recognize his name he invented the phillips head screwdriver. So when I found this old girl sitting in a box full of water at a garage sale calling my name to take it home and clean it up I had to buy it. You can only make...

www.garagejournal.com

 

[four.cycle]

thanks Woody!

 

[NimbleSquirrel]

Thanks for the great read!!! I’m just lost in the patent dates cause according to what I’m seeing it was patented in Canada prior to the states? So does that blog post hold true that the made in Canada patent is the original :/

 

[woody 73]

Nimble Squirrel Hi,

You ask a very interesting question; one that I can not answer but the following might expand your knowledge a bit.
If you research some about John P. Thompson (A link to get you started) ; then that might lead to a possible other routes it took.

Phillips screw and driver

The Phillips screw and driver, originally invented by Portlander John P. Thompson, dramatically increased the speed of manufacturing and made the Phillips scre…

www.oregonencyclopedia.org

Good luck and happy hunting.

Woody

 

[Graeme]

I can't really answer your questions, but that screwdriver looks very familiar to me. But I suspect it's probably familiar to alot if folk.
I think I have one, or have had one. I'm also reasonably sure I have come across them quite regularly in the typical box of old tools we like to rummage through.
In the UK at least.

I may be wrong though and maybe there is just something very similar out there that's common.
I'm going to have to have a dig through my old screwdrivers and find out.
I tend to pretty much ignore screwdrivers in general as I abuse them terribly. I particularly ignore this type of wood handled screwdriver as they are normally split, broken etc, and if they aren't, they will be within 5 mins of me using them.
Only wood ones I like are the old Stanley's with the stepped ferrule with the red ring.
If i do have one, ill post pics.

 

[NimbleSquirrel]

Thanks for all the replies, every avenue seems to be a dead end on a definitive answere. Figured something along these lines would be easy to figure out, guess tool history isn’t a 100% documented and a lot of it is just pieces together information and some speculations. I’ve seen plenty other screwdrivers shaped the same on the internet but only that one blog post with this particular one. The American patent stamps ones are everywhere but not this one. I’ll keep digging and if I find anything new I’ll post it here.