Mortice chisel id required

[Richie555]

Part 2 of chisel id. After cleaning this chisel of rust part of a name appeared. I can't make out the first letters but they may be T and O, the one's that are clear say RMONY. Any ideas?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Stormont. Quite decent stuff, ceased production in 1951 iirc.

 

[Richie555]

Stormont. Quite decent stuff, ceased production in 1951 iirc.

Thank you very much Phil. I've never heard of them before, now to do some research. Apart from a couple of Marples the rest of my haul have no names. Time to get sharpening.

 

[JobandKnock]

Stormont. Quite decent stuff, ceased production in 1951 iirc.

From what I have been able to piece together Stormont came into existence in 1899 and the original firm was sold by the Stormont family in 1948 (source, unverified: Alan Stormont on the Sheffield Forum). At least one source infers that they were associated with J B Addis, but I can't confirm this. What is known is that they did produce good quality tools in the past, including carving chisels, a set of which were included the $150,000 "woodworker's tool compendium" offered at one time by Louisiana's M.S. Rau Antiques (upper, right):




What is also certain is that they continued until the late 1970s/early 1980s as Stormont-Archer. In fact I bought a couple of Stormont-Archer sash pocket chisels from Roger's in about 1980 (anyone remember him?) as bybthen they were the last people making these tools, and eBay and the 'net as a source of anything had yet to arrive. The quality, by then, was nothing to shout about. In fact they were mis-shaped (almost like a kid had made them) and downright ugly, but at least the steel was good and took an edge and the beech handles were well turned.



The advert above is from 1951 and shows what they were about back then. There is also a 32 page November 1960 catalogue of tbe firm archived at achiive.net under "Stormont Edge Tools of Distinction" which seems to indicate that they were still marking their tools "Stormont" at that date which may be of interest. The entire catalogue is downloadable as .jpg files



Out of interest the tools I bought came with a paper label on the handle which read "Stormont Archer"

Hope this is of interest

 

[Richie555]

From what I have been able to piece together Stormont came into existence in 1899 and the original firm was sold by the Stormont family in 1948 (source, unverified: Alan Stormont on the Sheffield Forum). At least one source infers that they were associated with J B Addis, but I can't confirm this. What is known is that they did produce good quality tools in the past, including carving chisels, a set of which were included the $150,000 "woodworker's tool compendium" offered at one time by Louisiana's M.S. Rau Antiques (upper, right):

View attachment 117278
View attachment 117277

What is also certain is that they continued until the late 1970s/early 1980s as Stormont-Archer. In fact I bought a couple of Stormont-Archer sash pocket chisels from Roger's in about 1980 (anyone remember him?) as bybthen they were the last people making these tools, and eBay and the 'net as a source of anything had yet to arrive. The quality, by then, was nothing to shout about. In fact they were mis-shaped (almost like a kid had made them) and downright ugly, but at least the steel was good and took an edge and the beech handles were well turned.

View attachment 117272

The advert above is from 1951 and shows what they were about back then. There is also a 32 page November 1960 catalogue of tbe firm archived at achiive.net under "Stormont Edge Tools of Distinction" which seems to indicate that they were still marking their tools "Stormont" at that date which may be of interest. The entire catalogue is downloadable as .jpg files

View attachment 117274

Out of interest the tools I bought came with a paper label on the handle which read "Stormont Archer"

Hope this is of interest

Thank you for this information. I`m building a collection of old quality hand tools to keep working. All information is valuable to me.