Museum - Manufacturers & Merchants
T. H. Witherby & The Winsted Edge Tool Co.

Envelope
WINSTED EDGE TOOL WORKS, STATION A, WINSTED, CONN. "T.H. WITHERBY' CHISELS, GOUGES AND DRAWING KINVES. March 9, 1912, to: Norton Co., Worcester, Mass. Interesting information in this envelope. The quotes around the Witherby brand are original. The address is to the Norton Company, makers of abrasives.

Advertisement, Newspaper
Tenite Handles. The New York Times, October, 1950. What is interesting about this advertisement is the list of companies at the bottom of the ad. Included are such companies as Winsted Edge Tool, Millers Falls Co., James Swan, Irwin, etc.

Contributed by Brian Welch of the Oldtools eMail List.

Note: This ad is in PDF format for fine print legibility.
 

WINSTED EDGE TOOL WORKS, West Winsted, Conn. c1890. Reprinted in 1976 by the Early Trades & Crafts Society of Long Island. The makers of the famous Witherby edge tools. The only catalog for this maker that I know of at this time.

Contributed by Nathaniel Mitkowski of the Oldtools eMail List.

Trade Catalog: Tool Dealer
JOHN H. GRAHAM & CO. FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY CATALOGUE, ESTABLISHED 1870. C1920. 112 Chambers Street and 95 Reade Street, New York, U.S.A.. Also offices world wide. Interesting expandable catalog containing a variety of sections covering hand tools, shop equipment, gardening, hardware, etc. For this PDF, I have included only those sections pertaining to tools. To wit: Snell Mfg. Co (auger bits and related tools), Winsted Edge Tool Works (seems to be a full line of tools), Coes Wrench Co., Taintor Mfg. Co, Torrington Co.. Seymour Smith & Sons, L.S Watson Mfg. Co., G.W. Griffin Co., Rock Island Mfg. Co., Asst'd Saw Vises, American Grinder Mfg. Co., Many-Use Oil Co.

Catalog: Price List
Revised Price List of T. H. Witherby Tool Co., Sole Manufacturers Of The Witherby Chisels & Drawing Knives, Adopted at a Meeting of the Manufactuers, April 1st, 1868. ... All orders for the above should be addressed to Durrie & Rusher, 16 Beekman Street, New-York. 1868. A very interesting and early price list from the famous T. H. Witherby Tool Co. Originally folded to fit in an envelope, this price list looks as if it was pasted into a hardware store's desk catalog or price book. Brian Welch notes that the brand T. M Clarke indicates "that The Winsted Hoe Company was in full possession of the company and making Witherby chisels by April 1, 1868." For more information on the Witherby Company, stop in at Brian Welch's history of the Witherby Co. and at WKFineTools for even more information.

Trade Catalog
Witherby, Winsted, Conn., U.S.A. Chisels, Gouges, Drawing Knives. c1950
Short in length but chock full of surprising details, this scarce catalog for the reknowned Witherby / Winsted Edge Tool company supplies a concise history of the company as well as displaying some tools I, for one, have never seen. Here is the full introduction from the catalog:

THE WINSTED EDGE TOOL WORKS

Fine Tools Since 1827

IN 1827, in Millbury, Massachusetts, T. H. Witherby started manufacturing the fine steel 'chisels that today still bear his name. The high standards of quality under which those tools were designed and produced gave Witherby Chisels a very high reputation among tool users.

After forty-two years of consistently maintaining this reputation, the Witherby business and its good will were purchased in 1869 by the Win-sted Edge Tool Company of Winsted, Connecticut, an organization that had been manufacturing edged implements since 1829.

Three years after acquiring the Witherby rights, the new owners decided to discontinue their other products and concentrate on Witherby Chisels. Later gouges and drawing knives of similar high quality were added to the Witherby line, and in 1882 the present company name, The Winsted Edge Tool Works, was adopted.

In all these years of expert tool-making from 1827 down to the present day-dose to a century and a quarter-a vast wealth of knowledge and experience has been accumulated. The Witherby reputation for high quality has never been lost sight of. The excellence of the steels selected has been maintained. Special hardening and tempering processes have been perfected, to give uniformly hardened surfaces, with absence of soft areas. The procedure of rigid inspection at various vital stages of manu-facture is scrupulously upheld.

Equal skill and care are devoted to the design and production of handles for Witherby Tools. Only high grade, second growth white hickory stock is used. For the leather tips, skin of excellent quality is expertly applied. And all handles pass as rigid inspection as is given the steel blades.

These are reasons why we are able to stand behind every Witherby Chisel, Gouge and Drawing Knife with the following unqualified guarantee.

ABSOLUTE SATISFACTION TO THE USER

Our distributors are imtructed to have no hesitation in replacing, or re-funding purchase price, of any Witherby tool returned as unsatisfactory by the user.

THE WINSTED EDGE TOOL WORKS

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