Day 13, Pine Knot Brace And Irwin Auger Bits
Today's installment of "my garage gems" was originally going to be something else, but in digging that item out, I ran across this pair of items and decided to go with it instead. This is a "brace" or hand powered drill with a set of auger bits. In the world of rechargeable drills, this may seem like an anachronism, and they probably are, but I've used these a few times "for real", and these cut quickly and efficiently, and would probably do even better if I took the time to sharpen them properly.
The brace was made by Pine Knot, was a trademark of the Belknap company which was founded in Louisville, KY in 1840. They were unusual in that they survived the Great Depression and had a huge catalog of some 75,000 items in 1940. But time marches on and they werent bankrupt in 1986.
I suspect that this brace is somewhere between eighty and one hundred years old.
The bits (in the snazzy original case) are very nearly complete set of early Irwin auger bits.
The Irwin Auger Bit company was founded in 1895, and for decades was the largest producer of auger bits in the
United States. This pivoting drawer case (or "model" case) was apparently first used in 1892, and continued
to be shipped until 1933. I suspect that mine was probably
manufactured somewhere in that range, as it bears mention to the 1892 auger patents, making them very likely
over a hundred years old. When I first got them, they were incredibly rusty, and they served as some early
targets to my restoration efforts, using a combination of Evap-o-Rust and electrolysis. I stripped the box a bit
because it was falling apart, and reglued it, but have not finished it. I should get back to that sometime soon.
When I first got these bits, they served as my first exploration into using electrolysis for rust removal. Some cool before and after pictures can be found there.
Have a boring day!