Tool Information Files

The revolutionary impact of the internet now allows the construction of a detailed electronic encyclopedia of New England's most important toolmakers.  This task is an essential component of constructing an archaeology of tools of the maritime culture of Maine.  Visitors to this website can be extremely helpful by providing us citations of publications and website links pertaining to the many 18th and 19th century tool manufacturers and toolmakers who created the hand tools that helped build America.

Davistown (Liberty and Montville) Toolmakers Information Files

All currently identified Davistown (Liberty and Montville) tool makers are listed in the Davistown History Project section of this website.  If you have any additional information on these tool makers, please contact the Museum.  Documentation of tool makers living in Liberty and Montville as well as in other nearby locations is one of the missions of The Davistown Museum.  If anyone would like to set up a special file on the toolmakers in any community in Hancock, Waldo, Knox or Lincoln counties or has additional information on local toolmakers please contact the Museum.

Maine Toolmakers Information Files (except Davistown)

Link here to the information on Maine toolmakers living outside of the Davistown Plantation area.  As we collect information on the activities of these toolmakers, their files will be constructed or expanded in this location in our website.  If you have any information other than that posted below on any Maine toolmaker that you would like to make available, please contact the Museum.  Please note these listings also include tool users in the Museum collection who did not make their own tool.

Information files are currently available for:

• List of New England Machinist Tool Manufacturers

  Brown & Sharpe Co.
  S. W. Card Mfg. Co.
  Charles P. Fay
  J. M. King & Co.
  L. S. Starrett Co.
  J. Stevens & Company

  Almond Mfg. Co., Fitchburg, MA
  Ames Shovel Co., Easton, MA
  Atha Tool Co., Newark, NJ
  Auburn Tool Co., Auburn, NY
  A.B. Allen & Co., New York, NY
  Wm Beatty & Son, Chester, PA
  Leonard Bailey, Boston, MA
  J & E. R. Barbour, Portland, ME
  David R. Barton Tool Co., Rochester, NY
  Belden Machine Co., New Haven, CT
  Billings & Spencer Co., Hartford, CT
  Brown & Sharpe Small Tools, Providence, RI
  Buck Brothers, Millbury, MA
  Buff & Buff Mfg. Co., Jamaica Plain, MA (Buff and Berger) (C L Berger & Sons Manufacturing Co.)
  WM. H. Carr & Co., Philadelphia, PA
  Chandler & Farquhar, Boston, MA
  Chapin-Stevens Co. Union Factory, Riverton and Pine Meadow, CT
  Hermon Chapin, New Hartford and Pine Meadow, CT
  Henry Cheney Hamer Co., Little Falls, NY
  L. & A. G. Coes wrenches (Coes tools in the museum collection)
  Collins & Co., Collinsville and Canton, CT
  Connecticut Valley Manufacturing Co., Centerbrook, CT
  Leonard L. Davis (Davis Level & Tool Co.) Davis levels, planes, gauges, screwdrivers, hacksaws, drills, calipers
  Henry Disston & Sons, Inc., Philadelphia, PA
  Douglas Axe Manufacturing Co., Douglas, MA
  C. Drew & Co.  (Drew tools in the Museum collection)
  Eagle Square Co., Shaftsbury, VT
  I.B. Farrington, Brooklyn, NY
  Folding Sawing Machine Co., Chicago IL and Essex Center, Ontario
  Josiah Fowler, New Brunswick, Canada (ship's carpenter's adzes)
  Gage Tool Co., Vineland, NJ
  Goldblatt Tool Co. Kansas City, KS
  Goodnow & Wightman, Boston, MA
  Goodell-Pratt Company, Greenfield, MA
  Greenfield Tool Co., Greenfield, MA
  Greenlee Bros./Greenlee Tools, Chicago and Rockford, IL
  Hammacher, Schlemmer & Co., New York, NY
  H.H. Harvey & Co., Augusta, ME and Boston, MA
  Heebner & Sons, Worcester and Lansdale, PA
  R. Hoe & Co., New York, NY and Boston, MA
  Hoole Machine and Engraving Works, Brooklyn and New York, NY
  Heller & Bros., Newark, NJ
  Hope & Co., Providence, RI
  Hynson Tool & Supply Co., St. Louis, MO
  S. Robert Jackson, Watertown, NY
  Jackson & Tyler, Baltimore, MD
  C.E. Jennings & Co., New York, NY (also Yalesville, CT, Port Jervis, NY and New Haven, CT)
  Solomon A. Jones & Co., Hartford, CT
  James Kellogg, Amherst, MA
  Caleb Jewett Kimball, Bennington, NH
  Lang & Jacobs, Boston, MA
  The Lufkin Rule Co., Cleveland, OH and Saginaw, MI
  Machinists Tool Co., Providence, RI
  David W. Mann Co., Lincoln, MA
  Millers Falls Company (Millers Falls Co. tools in the Museum collection)
  Morse Twist Drill & Machine Co., New Bedford, MA
  Nicholson Files and Rasps Co., Providence, RI
  North Bros. Mfg. Co., "Yankee Tools", Philadelphia, PA
  North Wayne Tool Co., Hallowell, ME and Oakland, ME
  Joshua Oldham, New York, NY
  Ohio Tool Co., Columbus, OH and Auburn, NY
  O.S. Rixford, East Highgate, VT
  Charles Samuel Osborne Co., Newark, NJ
  The Peavey Tool Co./Peavey Mfg. Co., Bangor, Oakland and Edington, ME
  Peck Stow & Wilcox Co., Southington, CT
  Fayette R. Plumb , Philadelphia, PA
  A.H. Pomeroy, Hartford, CT
  Pratt & Whitney Co., West Hartford, CT
  William Rowland & Co., Philadelphia, PA
  John Russell & Co., Greenfield and Deerfield, MA
  Sandusky Tool Co., Sandusky, OH
  Sargent & Co., Leicester, MA and New Haven, CT
  Sawyer Tool Mfg. Co., Fitchburg, MA
  H. B. Smith Machine Co., Smithville, NJ
  Stanley Tool and Level Co. of New Britain, CT (Stanley tools in the Museum collection)
  Star Tool Co., Middletown, CT
  Stratton Brothers, Greenfield, MA
  Starrett Tool Co., Athol, MA
  The James Swan Company, Seymour, CT
  Willis Thrall & Son, Hartford, CT
  Underhill Edge Tool Co.,
  Underhill & Brown, Auburn, NH
  Union Mfg. Co., New Britain, CT
  William P. Walter's Sons, Philadelphia, PA
  Walworth Mfg. Co., Boston, MA (Stilson wrenches)
  Joseph Watts, Boston, MA
  Wheeler, Madden & Bakewells, New York, NY and Middleton, NY
  Whitman & Barnes, Mfg. Co., Akron, OH and Philadelphia, PA
  A.J. Wilkinson, Boston, MA
  Winchester Arms Co., New Haven, CT
  Thomas H. Witherby, Witherby Tool Co., Winstead Edge Tool Works, Millbury, MA and Winsted, CT
  William T. Wood, Arlington, MA
  Otto Young & Co., Chicago, IL
  Zenith Tools (Marshall Wells Hdwe. Co.), Duluth, MN
• Specific Tools and Maufacturing Processes Information Files
• Yankee plough planes
• Kathadin Iron Works: Blast Furnaces, Charcoal Kilns, Lime Kilns
• Axes
• Joiners
• Saws