The Davistown Museum
Center for the Study of Early Tools
Scattered throughout The Davistown Museum are tools by important manufacturers who are also the subject of
information files compiled by the museum. This is a listing of our holdings for:
Buck Brothers

Status Location
Historic Maritime III (1800-1840): Boomtown Years & the Dawn of the Industrial
Revolution
Woodworking: Edge Tools
11213T1 Mortise chisel bio LPC MH
Steel, wood (beech), 13 3/4" long overall, 5 1/2" handle, 9/16" edge, signed "J. BUCK WARRANTED".
11213T2 Mortise chisel bio LPC MH
Cast steel, wood (beech), 12 3/4" long, 5 1/2" handle, 3/8" edge, signed "J. BUCK WARRANTED".
Woodworking: Edge Tools - American Made Cast Steel
102100T26 Gouge bio DTM MH
Cast steel, wood, brass, 9 5/8" long with a 4" long and 3/8" wide blade, signed "Charles Buck CAST STEEL".
He is among the most famous of all American edge toolmakers.
Historic Maritime IV (1840-1865): The Early Industrial Revolution
Woodworking: Edge Tools
TCC2007 Socket chisel bio DTM MH
Forged iron and steel, 10 5/8" long without handle, 7/16" wide, signed "Buck Brothers, Millbury, MA".
The touchmark on this chisel is probably the early mark of the Buck Brothers. While Buck tools are ubiquitous, Buck Brothers tools with this
mark are very uncommon. This steel chisel signals the evolution of the factory system of mass production of hand tools that had evolved by the
middle of the 19th century.
TCC2009 Tang chisel bio DTM MH
Forged iron and steel, 5" long, 7/8" wide, signed "Buck Brothers Made of American Steel".
This is another unusual Buck Brothers' touchmark.
Woodworking: Edge Tools - American Made Cast Steel
032203T13 Framing chisel bio photo DTM MH
Cast steel with a wood handle, 12 1/2" long including a 4" handle, signed "BUCK BROS" "CAST STEEL" with a bucks head touchmark.
This is a socket chisel.
31908T20 Timber framing chisel photo photo DTM MH
Forged iron, cast steel, wood, 16 1/2" long with an 8" long blade, 2" wide, signed "CAST STEEL" and a partially obscured "BL_".
The signature is possibly Buck Brothers.
Woodworking: Planes
42405T1 Razee plane bio DTM MH
Lignum vitae, cast steel blade, 15 7/8" long, 2 1/8" wide, signed "Buck Bros Warranted Cast Steel" on blade.
The handle has been replaced. It is a typical run of the mill Maine owner-made boat shop plane of the mid-19th century.
110404T1 Smooth plane photo photo LPC MH
Lignum vitae, cast steel blade, 9" long, 2 1/2" wide, 2 1/8" high body, 1 7/8" wide blade, signed "E.R.KING" "MAKER" "E. BOSTON" on
nose, "CHARLES BUCK" "CAST STEEL" "WARRANTED" on blade, "MOULSON BROTHERS" "M B" "WARRANTED" "STEEL" on
curling iron.
This tool was found in a Brookline, MA, private collection in late October of 2004. It also has a faint mark on the other end of the plane: "G. L.
D." that might be an owner's mark. It appears to be a plane made during the heyday of the east Boston shipyards. Buck Brothers began
making plane blades in Worcester, MA, as early as 1856. They moved to Millbury in 1864. The Buck blade suggests the plane was made after
1856, but probably before the Civil War as the 1850s represent the high point of production of the east Boston shipyards. No E.R. King
hallmark is listed in either Pollak's 4th edition or DATM (Nelson 1999). The Davistown Museum solicits further information about this East
Boston maker.
The Industrial Revolution (1865f.): Other Factory Made Tools
Hammers

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