Unusual Bronze Tools?

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Hi All,

Just bought a large quantity of these bronze tools in various sizes at auction.

They were in with a huge fossil collection being disposed and described as “non sparking chisels”.

My thoughts on seeing the charred handles were that they are in fact book binding related but i as unable to see the business ends in the auction photos.

On getting them home i can see none of the usual designs to the ends for tooling the gold leaf etc; they all just have plain “chisel” type end in straight and curved varieties?

There some makers names Knights & Cottrell; Morris & Co; Kris & Co etc, sadly not the magic BEREL of Paris I was hoping for!

Looking for some confirmation as to what they are for from you guys!

Cheers, Martin

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

The only purposely ‘non-sparking’ tools that I have seen are a cold-chisel and a set of spanners.

Others may well know better … but I would guess the bronze in your tools is either for manufacturing convenience, or for its thermal properties.

MichaelG.

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

If you’ve never heard of the Great Fauld Disaster – read up ! Bronze tools are used in circumstances where a spark could cause trouble, eg when working with explosives. Though in the Fauld incident it seems that bronze tools were being used – but it still went BANG ! Noel.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Possibly for working something that may be stained by contact with iron eg with a high tannic acid content. The charring may be staining

[JuddyParticipant @juddy]

They are for working in an ATEX rated area where a flammable atmosphere maybe present such as a spray booth, paint mixing, petrochemical plant or paper mill etc.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

A bit of Googling for Knight And Cotteral has a few results for bookbinding finishing tools such as this

maybe not to tarnish the embossed metals or react with the tanning acids in the leather.

[Rob Murgatroyd 1Participant @robmurgatroyd1]

Not to derail the thread but, you can visit the Great Fauld crater. Worth seeing and a very sobering place.

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Don’t forget that not only books were embossed with gold.  Writing desks tended to have a leather surface and the border was embossed with fancy patterns and lines.  A couple of those “chisels” look to have a curve for making patterns and corners.  The large tool would probably be rolled to emboss a gold line.  Looks like this on ebay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325903428235?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1S5uxF_qxQZmEhOxKkIS0KA59&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=325903428235&targetid=1405537545018&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=1006634&poi=&campaignid=17218284410&mkgroupid=142217514411&rlsatarget=aud-1162782600616:pla-1405537545018&abcId=9300867&merchantid=232686912&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgqGrBhDtARIsAM5s0_losd5QOxJzx66-A5F_fayE3nTZ1qy3Y6TH9R7Ji1aKTomWmGPBKWwaAjSBEALw_wcB

Rod

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Jason & Roderick,

thanks so much for the links, these are exactly what I have, 42 in total including 3 that are raw unfinished castings.

i am going to leave them exactly as is and see how they do.

cheers, Martin

[Don CoxParticipant @doncox80133]

I’m sure I remember being told that the gas board used to issue pick axes with bronze heads specifically to use during searching for underground leaks.  In my early teens a pub called the “Rising Sun”, just above Box in, Wiltshire blew up with the lives of the Land Lord, his wife and their son lost.  A few years later I was a PO telephones apprentice working near that location with one of the ex members of the gas board digging crew which had been sent out to find the leak.  He reckoned that on the day after, wherever they dug even on the other side of the main A4 road, gas was coming out of the ground, non sparking tools must have seemed a good idea then.

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Martin, I own quite a few Knights and Cottrell bookbinding tools as well as tools by many other makers, incl. major tool cutters such as Morris and Co, Paas, Timbury, and the French firms Bearel, Alivon, Morand.

What you have shown there are single line pallets and single line gouges, and possibly a full stop or comma, from the look of things.

My first ever post on the old forum about 6 years ago was about making gouges in bronze.

If you’re not familiar with it, the book Bookbinders’ Finishing Tool Makers by Tom Conroy is a historical index of makers worldwide with brief, and sometimes extensive, “biographical” notes on each maker.

Conroy’s index isn’t complete by any means; even my own modest collection of around 2000 tools contains tools by makers not mentioned in Conroy’s book.

 

Edit: Most of the tools you’re advertising in your Ebay listing of 47 tools appear to be brass, not bronze.

In my experience, British bookbinding finishing tool makers almost always used brass not bronze. The most highly regarded French makers, incl. Morand and Alivon (and probably other French firms), tended to favour bronze. Confusingly, the French term for a bookbinder’s finishing tool is fer à dorer. Iron was  used, particularly in earlier times. It didn’t weather very well, as you can imagine.

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Hi Bill,

Thanks so much for your very informative post.

Over the years we have had quite a few similar items mainly picked up in France on our buying excursions to vide greniers and brocantes. Recently we had several superb pallet wheels by Berel of Paris which were very wanted.

The tools I have do have a very dark colour which is why I assumed bronze but will check tomorrow.

2000 tools is hardly modest! Do you do binding yourself?

I have just finished fixing a nice nipping press by Dryad that had broken suds to the arch; I have milled off the remnants, drilled and tapped for new studs and nuts. Oddly this came missing its handle and has a wheel to operate it. The wheel I think is from a sewing machine table but seems to do the job well 🙂

I do so enjoy bringing these items back from the dead!

Cheers, Martin

 

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

Martin, if it’s the type I’m thinking of, the Dryad nipping press you mention may have originally had a handwheel rather than a handle. See pic at bottom of this post.

A late friend of mine made a very substantial, part wood part metal, nipping press, which I now own. He used a handwheel off a large Colchester lathe for it. It works very well, but it has to be said you would be able to apply more pressure with a long handle. Then again, wooden presses can’t really take too much pressure.

I’ve been bookbinding for nearly thirty years. My specialism is finishing, i.e. gold tooling (often “blind” tooling as well) using real gold leaf. I wrote a lengthy article on the topic a while back for the Society of Bookbinders’ Journal.

Good luck with the ongoing searches in France and elsewhere. One tool I’m particularly interested in is the hand typeholder. I’ve got around thirty of them of various kinds, though some are ones I made my self. If you ever come across any I’d be interested in seeing them in case they’re unusual ones. I’m planning to write an article on the history and design of them at some point to complement an article I wrote a while back on how they’re made.

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