Thread: Identification of old brace

Hi Kenny,

Love your old brace!

I can't help with the identification directly. But if the corrosion on the maker's name is causing heartache, then I have a suggestion.

You'll need to clear the rust to read the name. I am restoring some chisels, some auger bits and a couple of other bits and pieces and I have come up with clear, sparkling steel using molasses. Here's how.

Buy a jar of molasses for $6-odd at your local health food store. Tip that and eight or nine jars of water into a plastic dish. Put your rusty artifacts into that and leave them for three or four weeks. They'll come out the other side of the process covered in a black sludge which washes off easily with water. A few dashes with an el cheapo green pot scourer from the kitchen and voila - the lovely sheen of a treasured tool is all yours. And easily readable maker's names too. Be proud.

Check out my story. Just Google it. Molasses rust. Read all the references.

Stay warm and dry,

Kevin.

hi Kenny, the ratchet looks the same as on a couple of Chapman braces that I have, though mine have smooth/plain octagonal chucks rather than the knurled cylinder. Stanley U.S.A bought Chapman UK somewhere around 1934 (if my flu-addled brain is working this morning) as a start-up for Stanley U.K. so that might give some clues to the likely date of your brace if you determine exactly what is under the rust (I suspect it is either a Chapman or an early UK Stanley).