UNMARKED BRACES
UNMARKED BARBER CHUCK BRACE
This
completely unmarked brace is in super condition. The appearance of the
lignum vitae cup handle suggests a brace from the 1870s (it is thin, cupped
underneath, and nicely turned and decorated). The nickel finish is almost
complete. In a 10" sweep, the brace has an original Barber's chuck with
the proper jaws. A quality brace, it looks pirated without marks, to
infringe on the Barber patent.
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UNMARKED (IVES?) RATCHET
(PFLEGAR?) BRACE
This brace has
no discernable mark on it, but because of its dinged and worn condition, and
extant mark would be difficult to find. The uncommon ratchet consists of a
rotating vertical cam that is knife edged in two opposite sides in two
positions, and allows the pawl to rotate against the bevel. This is most
likely the invention of F.P. Pflegar who patented a similar mechanism on March
21, 1876 (#175151, Pearson "B"). Pflegar's original design had the knife
edges on a vertical plate that rotated around a pin in one end, not a cam pinned
in the middle.
Pflegar was located in New Haven, Connecticut--the home of the William Ives
Co--and similar braces are reported that are marked with the Ives name. It
is not unlikely that this brace was also produced by Ives.
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GAVIN & CROMER
George Gavin and Lawrence Cromer, from Eureka, Nevada, were granted a brace
patent on July 19, 1887 (#366826, Pearson "A") for an unusual chuck that
accepts a special bit with a notched tang. Not very successful, this brace
is not often seen.
The flat spring seems to require a tool to pry it up to release the bit.
Probably the most outstanding feature of this brace is that it likely the only
brace patented in Nevada.
Unmarked "MYSTERY BRACE"
This unmarked ratcheting brace was
found in a lot of braces purchased at a Rhode Island tool auction in the summer
of 2016. It is a well made brace that has an 1880s look to it, with a
fully clad lignum top handle, very shapely brass or gunmetal bushings holding a
lathe decorated wrist handle, and a chuck with nicely knurled rotating shell
that holds a captive pair of interlocking jaws. The brace has a 10" sweep,
and is completely unmarked.
The ratcheting mechanism is one that
I've not seen. The ratchet selector is a pin with a ball finial that
projects from the top middle of the horizontal part ratchet housing.
The vertical part of the housing, with attached chuck is held with a set screw
which projects into a groove below a toothed disk that serves as the ratchet
teeth. The teeth project upwards into a horizontal bar having gaps.
This bar is moved backwards and forwards by the pin that projects from the top.
In its full forward position the right ratchet is engaged, and the sliding bar
projects though a slot in the front of the ratchet housing. When the pin
is pulled back, the bar slides back into the ratchet housing,, and the left
ratchet is engaged. The mid-position of the bar is the locked position.
I can find no brace patent that corresponds to this mechanism. Brace
collector Stan Morgan has a very similar brace, also unmarked, that differs only
in that the pin on his brace does not have the small ball finial of mine.
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