Choose Topic A Brief History of the Brace Bit - Reg Eaton (1997) Collecting Bits - James E. Price (1996) A Brief History of the Brace - Reg Eaton (1995) A Brief History of the Brace Bit Reg Eaton (Author of "The Ultimate Brace")
The Ancient Egyptian tomb frescoes depicting the use of the bow drill as early as 2700 B.C. are the first indications of the metal boring bit. Although these very early examples were probably only used for making small holes or reaming. By the time the brace made its somewhat belated appearance in the tradesman's kit (first depicted in the 15th century) the bit had become quite a developed accessory in its own right.
The first known wooden brace examples had the bits fixed directly into the stock much the same as Chairmakers used until comparatively recent times. However, with the advent of a removable wooden plug or pad, a range of bits could be accommodated in one "bit stock".
One of the main advantages of the brace is the continuous rotary motion rather than the stop and start of the bow drills, and of course the vastly increased power that can be exacted on the double crank.
This led to a plethora of different designs, one of the most notable being the centre bit with the ability to cut and scribe clean holes up 3 1/2" in diameter Another ingenious example is the cock plug bit, used to bore a hole in a cask of liquid, while the plug fills the hole until a tap can be inserted.
However without doubt the ingenuity shown by inventors in the USA during the last half of the nineteenth century is truly awesome. The profusion of patents issued runs into several hundreds, many of which were too complicated or impractical ever to have gained commercial recognition. Others were of huge success such as those of Russell Jennings, Irwin & Forstner Clarke & Swan to mention but a few. Now with the advent of machinery and the cordless electric drill most of these wonderful innovations are redundant.
For further reading I recommend "A Sourcebook of United States Patents for Bitstock Tools" by James F. Price, and of course the chapter "Bits & Pieces" of "The Ultimate Brace".
Collecting Bits
Bitstocks and the tools that fit into them are fascinating specimens from our past technology. Throughout the antique tool collecting fraternity very few individuals pay much attention to the wide range of tools for use in union with bitstocks. After three decades of collecting them I have come in contact with only six individuals who have more than a passing curiosity about the wide variety of boring, drilling, reaming, tapping, and milling tools that fit in a bitstock. Sometime in the fourteenth century AD the double-crank bitstock gave man access to easily portable uninterrupted unidirectional rotary motion for the first time. From that time hence man's ingenuity has produced literally thousands of tool types to be employed in rotary motion imparted by double-crank bitstocks.
My collection, assembled over the past thirty four years, contains over 15,000 specimens ranging from the exceedingly common to unique patent models. Aside from auger bits from around the world, the collection contains such specimens as a bit and attachment to bore the cavity for wooden pill boxes and fashion matching lids, to a large paint-grinding mortar bit, and bits that bore expanding holes as they progress into the wood. There are hollow augers, chain drills, bulletmold cherries, valve grinding bits, tree tapping bits, bore-counterbore bits, billiard table wrenches, and gunsmith '5 muzzle milling bits, to name a few types. The field of bitstock tools is vast. Research for my book published in 1993 reveals 721 US patents for such tools. The opportunity still remains to assemble a large collection of diverse and interesting bitstock tools in that they are still rather plentiful and do not command high prices. One could spend years just collecting different maker and dealer imprints on American auger bits. My collection contains 1140 different imprints and I regularly find unrecorded specimens.
Although bitstock tools do not as yet appeal greatly to a large number of collectors, I predict that in time more individuals will be attracted to the fascinating story of the evolution of bitstock tools and the history of the men who invented and manufactured them.
A Brief History of the Brace
The Romans and Ancient Egyptians possessed quite a large range of woodworking tools, however the brace as we know it today (being a double crank imparting continuous rotary motion) was a very late development. Somewhat surprisingly there is little or no evidence of its existence before appearing in paintings of the early 15th century.
The first - somewhat crude specimens- were found in the English flagship the Mary Rose and can be dated prior to her sinking in
1545. The ill fated Dutch expedition wrecked in 1596 at Novaya Zemlya had a more sophisticated example, with turned head and
interchangeable pads, in fact very similar to those made in Holland until quite recently.
Today's collector however, is more likely to encounter braces first developed (in any quantity) from London and Birmingham during the second half of the 18th century. These had the advantage of a metal pad (chuck), that could accommodate a wide variety of cutting tools.
By the 1820s the tool business, although long established in Sheffield, became the centre of the trade. 1844 saw the first registered designs granted to any tool maker for "Improved Carpenter's Brace Heads" firstly to THOMAS MOULSON and then HENRY BROWN. This appears to have opened the floodgates of invention, as the brace makers vied with each other to devise patents and registered designs either real, imagined or completely spurious. By the late 1850s this creativity seems to have waned, and it would not be long before the mechanically superior American iron brace came to dominate, and signal the demise of the domestic market.
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