Victor Brace and Bit

[Mountain Ash]

Hi all. Found this recently and picked it up because I seemed to remember something about the Victor name. Turns out Stanley bought the company out years prior and re introduced the name in the 1930s. Cleaned it up and found the SW mark on the chuck. Used the Autosol Metal Lifesaver on the bright bits and good old metho to clean up the timber, then 3 in 1 and wax to coat it. Found a copy of the 1934 catalogue and it refers to this model having "hardwood" handles. Looks "Beechish" but I'm not convinced. Does anyone know anymore?

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[IanW]

Can't get a really good look at the woodwork, MA, but the bit of handle I can see reasonably closely in one pic says "Beech" to me - the ray-fleck looks about right. From what I've read, when they used the generic term "hardwood" wrt tools back in the day it nearly always meant beech. Beech was/is common, cheap, & actually quite suited to the purpose.

Anyway, you've enlightened my ignorance on yet another matter - I wasn't aware that Stanley revived the "Victor" name after they dropped it for the #20 compass plane, which was the only plane Stanley continued with when they bought Bailey out for the second time. My book says that was it for the "Victor" name but you've shown that's manifestly untrue. Stanley must've paid him a decent sum that time, or included a strict "no more inventing of any kind" clause in the sale agreement 'cos Lenny rode off into the sunset after that & didn't turn his genius to inventing anything, not even so much as a fancy potato peeler ever again. Or maybe he'd just plain run out of ideas...

Cheers,

[Mountain Ash]

Thanks Ian. I stumbled across the info somewhere on the internet. Interestingly it seems that the SW trademark doesn't add much value to these tools, as opposed to say hand planes.

[Simplicity]

I’ve never looked closely at the ones I’ve had but yours also has a Square thread on the chuck, I would have thought that a bit over the top for a thread assemble that is only ever done up with hand strength !!.

Maybe I need enlighten a bit [emoji848].

Nice find tho, an it’s come up looking great.

Cheers Matt.

[MartinCH]

Hi MA,

I was using my Stanley 78 today- I have a couple of braces but the 78 is different in that square bit locks on to modern hex bits. On the others, there's a bit of slip. Hope yours has the same capability.