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27th February 2011, 08:04 PM #1
A M. Sorby Sheffield mortice chisel 1943
Hey guys,
I picked up this old chisel at the Ballarat swap meet on the weekend for $5. I have no real intention of using it, just thought it would clean up nice to hang on the garage wall along side my Grandfathers old tools.
it's a 1 1/4in mortice chisel and has stamped on the face "AM. SORBY SHEFFIELD" with a bull stamped next to it. On the back is a triangle stamp with the numbers "1943" which I assume is the year it was made.
Can anyone shed some light on this brands history and are they any good?
Also any tips on restoring it? I'm a carpenter, so have sharpened plenty in my life, but never cleaned up one so old.
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27th February 2011, 08:16 PM #2Jim
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The arrow and the date shows that it's service issue from the war years
Cheers ,
Jim.
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27th February 2011, 10:18 PM #3Senior Member
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Hi Kyle,
It's I & H Sorby.
The trademark is a hanging sheep.
Theres a good picture of the mark here.
Best wishes
Steve
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27th February 2011, 10:25 PM #4
Thats a new one on me. All the Sorby tools I have seen had the kangaroo emblem on them.
Was there another Sorby on the go ?
The sorby chisel I have (with kangroo mark) is first class.
Most tools from sheffield of that era should be very good.
Regards
John
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27th February 2011, 11:42 PM #5
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28th February 2011, 12:06 AM #6
Hi Kyle,
It's a Marples.. They owned the I H Sorby mark from 1909 onwards, although I don't know what quality level of tools they used it on.
Here is the Sorby Family tree, according to Ken Roberts.
The interesting thing about this family tree, is that current thinking is that Isaac Sorby didn't in fact exist. Repeated exhaustive searches of the archives in Sheffield have failed to locate the gentleman in question.
Nice chisel, and nice ww2 connection.
Regards
Ray
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28th February 2011, 09:27 PM #7
Thanks Jim, do you know if it means it's Australian issue?
Have to agree with the sheep, the more I look the less it looks like a bull. Don't know about the I & H Sorby. I gave it a quick scrub with a brush and what I thought was an M looks more like a H, but no I. Wonder if the A is supose to be an arrow like on the date stamp?
After a bit of Google work they are marked either " I. SORBY " or " I & H SORBY " , can't find any with a mark like mine.
When I first saw it I called it a firmer, but the guy selling it corrected me and called it a mortice. Nice to know I was right.
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1st March 2011, 09:25 AM #8SENIOR MEMBER
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Striking on chisels and files often haphazard. The "& H." clearly indicates there was something before the "&" and it was (meant to be) "I."
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1st March 2011, 09:53 AM #9Jim
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Kyle,
The same mark followed by the year was on British uniforms - might still be for all I know.
Cheers,
Jim
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1st March 2011, 10:11 AM #10In Memory of
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7th March 2011, 06:42 PM #11
Your right, after a bit of a scrub up what I thought was the letter 'A' is a '&'.
No 'I' to be found though and looks like it was never there to begin with. Seems someone at the Sorby factory didn't do their job properly!
So I've gone from thinking it was a "A M. Sorby mortice chisel,
to learning that it's a British service issue 'I & H Sorby' firmer chisel.
thanks guys.
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