Thread: McPherson's Proprietary ltd, A Hand tool catalogue

I expect some of you would like to see some machinery too:

P1060980.jpg

Apologies. The scanner is playing up so all pix were photographed (poorly). Double click on them to stand a chance of reading.

Regards
Paul

That catalogue looks excellent Paul.

Would love to get my soulless mits on that.

Ps it was the saw attempting tai-atari not me.

Cheers Matt.

Hi old workshop here.

I have a two old catalogues and one
dates back to 1900. It also has all hand tools and machines
belt driven. Will dig it out and try to post a few pics.
I live in Jersey C. I.
Martin.

Paul, Dick got a lot of info for his Titan book from old McPherson's cattle dogs. Have you come to the chisel pages yet?

McPersons were pretty big in the life of country folk back when I wore a lad - they sold everything a bloke on the land or in a country town could want, & more! Ah, the torture of reading those catalogues & lusting after tools that were way out of reach of a poor country lad....

The company still operates, but in a very different format from days of yore.

Cheers,

Thanks Martin.

Please feel free to post as much as you like.

The dating of my catalogue is from a small note on the bottom of the first page as follows:

"8M/7/24"

Regards
Paul

These are the chisels:

P1060989 (Medium) (2).JPG

Probably not as many as we might have expected, but if my dating of the catalogue is correct, about thirty five years before a young IanW was gloating over chisels.

Regards
Paul

The Yost vice was indeed a US made Patternmakers vise.
I have a few of McPhersons general cattle dogs and an earl metal machinery one.
Nice score.
H.

This is an old 1899 tool catalogue with hand tools and belt driven machines. What if any pictures of tools would anyone like to see.
.IMG_20210115_174812[2305843009244613562].jpg

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

... about thirty five years before a young IanW was gloating over chisels.....

At least!

Also a good many years before they sold Titans. They don't mention any brand names at all, but one would assume they are all Sheffield-made, including the "American pattern" examples.

Cheers,

I recently did some work for "an old bloke" who had worked for McPhersons. He primarily assembled their Aussie made lathes (mostly metal working) until they started bringing English ones in - because it was more cost effective. How times have changed!

Ok, good to know some of you have dealt with the company.

I have found a little more information. It was founded in 1860 by Thomas Mcpherson, who was a Scottish immigrant. The company was partially responsible for starting the Wiltshire file company (they are among the best saw files I have used). More information here:

Biography - William Edward McPherson - Australian Dictionary of Biography (anu.edu.au)

Today there are three branches: Housewares, Printing and Health and Beauty. This last division appears to carry the most weight and is the first result from a Google search. During the two world wars the company began to manufacture its own products forseeing that there was a international conflagration on the horizon.

Regards
Paul

enjoy

Hi Paul,
I have a McPherson's Engineers and Manufacturers Catalogue No 34 which I am assuming is from 1934. Unlike yours it is not specifically aimed at carpenters and lists only a few examples of the tools you've shown, including the Dreadnought files with the same promotional claims.
Obviously, my interest is braces and brace tools, and my copy has one page of braces of English and American origin and no auger bits at all.
I would be interested to see what yours has in the way of braces and bits.

Cheers,
Geoff.

Hi Martin,

The earliest Melhuish's catalogue I have seen is 1905, so would be interested to see what braces and bits the were listing in 1899, when you've got the time thanks.
Cheers,
Geoff.