Three hand braces. The brace at the top of the photo is a 10" sweep Millers Falls #32 brace with rosewood handles. The brace in the center is a 10" sweep Stanley #923 and the one at the bottom is an 8" sweep Stanley #919. Both Stanley braces have cocobolo handles.
Here is a classic antique Sheffield style brace made of beech with a cocobolo pad. The brace is plated, which means that the sides have been reinforced with brass supports, the bit holder has a button release, and the pad has an ivory button.
This unusual looking large brace is a Stanley #993 brace, designed to drill into corners or baseboards without using a ratchet mechanism. My grandfather, who worked for a power and gas utility, used it while converting homes to electric power.
Although
called a corner drill, the Stanley
#984 was most often used to drill holes in joists and other
tight spots using a ratchet mechanism. The handle and pad (which
is flat on one side) were made of cocobolo.
A 13 piece set of Irwin single twist double spur auger bits in a hardwood storage box.
This early 1900's Russell Jennings 13 piece double twist double spur auger bit set came in a finger joint hardwood 3-tier box. This set is complete, with no replacements, and only 3 or 4 of the bits have ever been re-sharpened, and those properly done.
The Stanley #49 was an adjustable bit gauge which could be attached to any size auger bit to limit drilling depth.
Three
hand drills made by Millers Falls.
The largest is a #2 and has a hollow handle to store bits. The
one in the middle is a #77 and the smaller one at the bottom
is a #94. Even larger models were held against the operator's
chest while drilling and were called breast
drills, and these were also made by Millers Falls. The drill
at the top of the photo is a model #19A which has two positions
for the hand crank, providing two speeds.
The drill at the bottom of the photo is a model #2100 with two
speeds which are selected by rotating
the brass cylinder in the center.
One of the more sophisticated breast drills ever made was the Millers Falls #97. Speed changes were made using the selector knob on the handle. The drill featured an enclosed ratchet mechanism between the pinion gears which could be rotated to select five different operating modes -- locked (normal operation), ratchet forward or reverse, and "continuous motion", allowing the drill to continue to rotate in the selected forward or reverse direction regardless of the handle rotation. A large removable breast plate could be installed over the usual sized plate, and the handle could be rotated so that it took up less space in a tool box.
Some Yankee drills which are used to drill holes or drive screws. The large one at the top of the photo is a #131A spring return model made by North Brothers of Philadelphia. It uses 5/16" diameter bits and drills. The two in the middle were made by Millers Falls, a #610A with spring return and a #61A without a spring. This size uses 9/32" bits and drills. The small one at the bottom of the photo is also made by Millers Falls, a #29 with spring return which uses 7/32" bits and drills.
Yankee
drills were patterned after the Archimedean
drill, named for the Greek mathematician and physicist Archimedes.
The brass chuck on the end holds a small drill which is caused
to rotate by moving the finger piece up and down the spiral shank
which rotates freely in the handle.
An old hollow auger and spoke pointer used to create and chamfer wooden spokes. Both were made by Stearns and Co. and are adjustable for size and depth.
Here is an old Goodell Pratt chain drill. The operator would wrap the chain around a beam or a post and insert the loose end into a slot in the tool. With each revolution of the brace a steel pin would rotate a star wheel which in turn would rotate a gear and draw the bit into the object being drilled.
Some gimlets and awls, center punches, and a rosebud cutter used to de-burr holes.
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