Tap & Die Sets

[beanotown2000]

Hi Everyone i hope someone may know what i have.

I cleared out my Grandads workshop, he was in the Navy and had some tools in cases. I don't seem to be able to get any help identifying much about them other then they are tap and die sets.
one appears to be at least 100 years old according to research.
can anyone here help at all?

Thanks in advance
Jason

 

[adidat]

you will need to put some pics up really.

welcome aboard!

Adidat

 

[beanotown2000]

Sorry it would appear they were too large for the site

i get this message when i try to upload a dropbox link

Your account does not have permission to post links or domain/page references.

 

[adidat]

i think you need to post one more time to allow you to post links, its to stop spammers for far away lands!

Adidat

 

[beanotown2000]

oh i see, Thanks for the heads up. let me do that now .

 

[beanotown2000]

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p2jhcd8aierx ... Ci4fa?dl=0

 

[adidat]

yep several different set there. some very nice complete sets.

As to identifying them you need to look all over for makers marks, patent numbers. What sort of information are you after? im guessing these will have a rather niche market....


Adidat

 

[beanotown2000]

From what i've found so far the sets are American. the Wells Brothers ones are from the end of the 1800's but i can't confirm it. what id ideally like to do is find someone who knows about them and could maybe value them so i can get them insured if possible.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

There are some seriously odd threads among those! Some may be Whitworth or BSF, and the American-made ones pre-date Unified threads by quite a lot, so may be American National or Sellers, but there are also a few that don't conform to any thread standard I'm aware of (and I know a fair few!).

I'm pretty sure all three sets are WW1 or earlier - the two-part die pattern was superceded by single-piece dies around that time.

Those are of specialist interest, and as they're of Naval origin, maybe Chatham Historical Dockyard or a similar establishment might be able to offer more information.

 

[beanotown2000]

That's brilliant thanks very much for the amazing reply.

I will definitely give them an email.

Thanks very much.

 

[beanotown2000]

Hi Guys

This is the reply i got from Chatham Dockyard.

Thank you for your email and the images. As you say it is a tap and die set and they are Whitworth Gauge which was the first “standardised” gauge – the quotation marks are because there have been so many “standard” gauges across different industries and countries. Whitworth was the first to try to create a standard gauge for taps, dies and threads introduced in 1841 – there is plenty of information out there about the Whitworth gauge and all of the other types of gauge depending on how far you want to go with your research.



Wells Brothers Company was an American company based in Massachusetts, the name of the company changed a few times over the years, they were Wells Brothers Company from 1888 to 1912 which gives you a date range for your set.

 

[Bm101]

Interesting tools, thanks for posting. I wonder if some of those sets/sizes are specific to your Grandfathers particular maritime trade. Do you know any more about what he did while in the Navy? It might help in establishing some more information?
I think I'd post the question on a couple of different forums as well. The more the merrier!

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/

http://marineengineering.org.uk/forum.html

I reckon I'd also get in touch with this guy... You never know. Dealers are dealers (that's not an insult) but it's likely he is very knowledgable and might be glad to help. Don't ask, dont know.
http://www.bonds-nautical-antiques.co.uk/about-me.html

Please keep us posted as you go if you can.
My Grandfather was in the Merchant Navy as an Engineer / Boilerman during the war but also served many years on whaling ships mostly coming out of Liverpool but sailing all over the world. Not the most fasionable trade nowadays quite rightly but different times of course.
I'd be interested in any progress you make as I'm sure others would.
Good luck,

Chris