A. J. Wilkinson’s catalogue 1870s

I’ve been up to Pete Galbert’s place to re-learn how to make a WIndsor chair – while I was there I saw Joel Paul ( https://www.instagram.com/13starsfarm/?hl=en ) and he kindly gave me an original A.J. Wilkinson catalog from the 1870s. It’s astounding what they carried then. My idea of nothing is to go shopping, but if I could shop at Wilkinson’s of that day, I’d do it in a hurry.

How about the “old reliable”? I don’t know how old this pattern of brace is – one website says that John Fray got a patent for his brace about 1859 – but the early ones are all-iron – the wooden inserts came a little later. And yet in the 1870s someone writing for Wilkinson’s catalog came up with “old reliable” – that’s marketing for you. The Spofford brace was one of Jennie Alexander’s favorites – I have 2 that came from her. Curtis Buchanan famously talks about JA giving him one and I have a letter from Dave Sawyer thanking Alexander for sending him one. JA liked them so much she made sure her friends had them too…

Spofford brace

Every page has something good on it – whether you like planes, saws, braces, etc – after seeing the Spofford brace – it needs bits. Which brings up another Jennie Alexander favorite – what she called “piercer” bits – after Joseph Moxon (& other 17th-century sources.) I had heard “pod” bit before but have never been clear on how it’s a pod – and we used to think that some of the bits we run across today have been altered, eventually pointing the end like what this catalog calls “spoon” bits. I expected the top bit (the “pod” bit) to be considered a small spoon bit – shows you what I know.

I always called them “piercers”

Probably every user of old tools sooner or later falls partway or more into collector-mode, buying tools they don’t really need. And then ephemera like these old tool catalogs only throw gasoline on a fire like that. I try to avoid that temptation, but sometimes fail. There’s worse ways to spend money I guess. I’ve written before about why I sometimes buy tools marked A.J. Wilkinson – (my father worked there) but I don’t go all-out. I’ve seen some very nice planes of theirs go for lots of money – we all have limits. I’ve had several of their folding-handle drawknives – I might even own two of them currently. I wish they were better than they are – imagine if they lived up to the hype in the catalog: “We have at last a perfect Draw Knife…”

I see they also sold Kimball’s drawknives which are actually very good knives. I’ve got a few of the saws they sold, some marked “Disston” some not. All have the Wilkinson name, some the address as well. One I have is marked “between State Street & Dock Square” and when I showed that one to my brother Steve he remembered when the store was at that location. He was 8 years old in the late 1950s and our father was taking him to the circus. They stopped at the store for something and he was waiting on customers – cowboys from the circus – and brought Steve to meet the “real” cowboys. This is the imprint – not my saw, this one was way out of my price range –

The catalog has a full line of Buck Brothers “London” style carving tools, and firmer gouges, chisels and turning tools. And lots of planes – 7 pages of wooden-bodied planes and 11 pages of metal-bodied planes, including some Bailey’s, Stanley’s and more. Some transitional planes too.

One more – Le Page’s Liquid Fish Glue – “And it never smells” Words to live by.

[this is only my 2nd post on this blog in 2024. Most of my writing is concentrated now on the substack blog – https://peterfollansbeejoinerswork.substack.com/ I try to post one “free-to-all subscribers” post there each week. Otherwise, free subscribers get a short preview. Paid subscribers ($5 a month/$60 a year) get the whole shebang. Is it worth it? Not for me to say…but to give you an idea, since my last post here, there’s been 17 posts on my substack… which may or may not be a good thing. Meanwhile, I’ll still put something here when time permits.]