A question for the historians …

[Blackswanwood]

Does anyone know how/why octagonal chisel handles came to be named London Pattern?

Thanks

Robert

 

[AndyT]

It's only a guess, but it might be an example of the more general use of "London" to signify the most superior pattern available. (Jane and Mark Rees refer to this practice in their book "Tools, a Guide for Collectors" with reference to carving tools, but say there that it was a general usage. In Goodman's British Planemakers, Jane refers to Birmingham makers marking their wares "London" to give them extra prestige. )

I'll have a look through some catalogues and old books and see if I can find any clues. I suspect that with the chisel handles, there will be more listings that don't call them London Pattern.

 

[Blackswanwood]

Thanks Andy. What prompted the thought is that I’ve learned today there is a London Pattern Trowel for brick laying and a Philadelphia Trowel for stone and block work.

 

[AndyT]

Thanks Andy. What prompted the thought is that I’ve learned today there is a London Pattern Trowel for brick laying and a Philadelphia Trowel for stone and block work.

You're in luck. A few years ago, tool collector Mark Stansbury started a blog about trowels, at https://trowelcollector.blogspot.com, because he didn't know of any other. His interest has since extended into the International Tool Catalog Library, a huge collection of over 8000 catalogues of tools, all scanned and shared. This link leads to what it has for the search term "London Trowel"

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org

Happy reading!

 

[Mike G]

I had occasion 5 or 6 years ago to build a small brick structure in Spain. I borrowed a local Spaniard's tools. The trowels!! Oh my goodness......it was like being a beginner again. They were all square-ended, like bucket-trowels, but with a huge crank. I managed, but only just. You can see why regional variations stick, because it would a very rare person who could change trowel styles mid-career from the one they learned with.

 

[Trevanion]

I had occasion 5 or 6 years ago to build a small brick structure in Spain. I borrowed a local Spaniard's tools. The trowels!! Oh my goodness......it was like being a beginner again. They were all square-ended, like bucket-trowels, but with a huge crank. I managed, but only just. You can see why regional variations stick, because it would a very rare person who could change trowel styles mid-career from the one they learned with.

Especially tools from rural areas that were made by hand and have been used for generations, and then have worn down, maintained and possibly modified over the years and look starkly different from how they started out!

When I started, I learned on a London pattern trowel and really couldn't get on with it, I moved onto a Philadelphia/Canadian pattern trowel and that was a night and day difference for me, I found it much more controllable and balanced but others will say vice versa, it's all down to personal preference.

 

[Woodbloke]

If it's of any interest, I've made a few 'London' pattern chisel handles. They're quite easy to do and look really attractive, particularly when turned in stuff like Ebony; I even did one in Pink Ivory which looked spectacular. I found through experience though, that you need a fairly small ferrule to get a decent rounded curve at the front - Rob

 

[AndyT]

Or for anyone without Rob's skills, the company who supply most of the remaining requirements for wooden handles will also supply individual needs, including for "London pattern":

Handles | Woodware

www.woodwarerepetitions.co.uk

 

[Woodbloke]

Or for anyone without Rob's skills, the company who supply most of the remaining requirements for wooden handles will also supply individual needs, including for "London pattern":

Handles | Woodware

www.woodwarerepetitions.co.uk

Having an exploratory delve into that website, they appear to make the handles for the Workshop Heaven chisels as well as Ashley Isles - Rob

 

[Blackswanwood]

@AndyT - thank you.

 

[AndyT]

Because I promised, here's a fairly random selection from some old catalogues showing the variety of chisel handles that used to be available.

Charles Nurse, 1902 - "Octagon boxwood"



Richard Melhuish 1905 - "Octagon Box"



Ward & Payne 1911 - "Best London Octagon Box" - also the less-than-best and tapered variants



William Marples, 1928 - "Best London Octagon Boxwood"



In finding these, I couldn't help noticing that my first two examples, which didn't include the word London, were both from London based merchants. The 1909 Edward Preston catalogue (from Birmingham, not shown) did include the London designation.
Maybe it was only in the 'provinces' that the superiority of London had to be pointed out!

At the risk of stating the obvious I should also point out that there are quite a lot of tools that retain a place name to distinguish their design. We've already seen trowels, but there are also hammers - where the London, Exeter and Warrington patterns are still quite easy to find, even if the Canterbury and Bristol have fallen from favour. I expect you can think of more examples.

 

[Mike G]

"Bevel edge firmer".... There it is again. Confusion reigns here.

 

[Blackswanwood]

Because I promised, here's a fairly random selection from some old catalogues showing the variety of chisel handles that used to be available.

Charles Nurse, 1902 - "Octagon boxwood"

View attachment 31989

Richard Melhuish 1905 - "Octagon Box"

View attachment 31990

Ward & Payne 1911 - "Best London Octagon Box" - also the less-than-best and tapered variants
View attachment 31992


William Marples, 1928 - "Best London Octagon Boxwood"

View attachment 31991

In finding these, I couldn't help noticing that my first two examples, which didn't include the word London, were both from London based merchants. The 1909 Edward Preston catalogue (from Birmingham, not shown) did include the London designation.
Maybe it was only in the 'provinces' that the superiority of London had to be pointed out!

At the risk of stating the obvious I should also point out that there are quite a lot of tools that retain a place name to distinguish their design. We've already seen trowels, but there are also hammers - where the London, Exeter and Warrington patterns are still quite easy to find, even if the Canterbury and Bristol have fallen from favour. I expect you can think of more examples.

When I started wondering about this I came across a discussion on an American forum in which it was claimed the earliest reference was in a Marples Catalogue from the late 1800’s.

Separately I have seen reference to Wm Marples acquiring a respected toolmaker, J Moseley & Son of London in 1888.

I wonder if the two are connected . Going back to your original point that it could have something to do with quality perhaps it started with Marples describing a newly acquired premium product?

 

[AndyT]

When I started wondering about this I came across a discussion on an American forum in which it was claimed the earliest reference was in a Marples Catalogue from the late 1800’s.

Separately I have seen reference to Wm Marples acquiring a respected toolmaker, J Moseley & Son of London in 1888.

I wonder if the two are connected . Going back to your original point that it could have something to do with quality perhaps it started with Marples describing a newly acquired premium product?

That's credible. Marples kept the Moseley name going and perhaps adding the word London did add to the appeal for some buyers.

 

[rxh]

It's only a guess, but it might be an example of the more general use of "London" to signify the most superior pattern available. (Jane and Mark Rees refer to this practice in their book "Tools, a Guide for Collectors" with reference to carving tools, but say there that it was a general usage. In Goodman's British Planemakers, Jane refers to Birmingham makers marking their wares "London" to give them extra prestige. )

I'll have a look through some catalogues and old books and see if I can find any clues. I suspect that with the chisel handles, there will be more listings that don't call them London Pattern.

Very interesting - I had always wondered why this rule was marked "Birmingham" and "London".

 

[AndyT]

There's a huge amount of detail about rules that I don't know, but I think that might be because it was explicitly marked as using the standard imperial inch, as defined in London.
Before metric units were the norm, English makers such as Smallwood or Rabone made export models for France marked "Paris", divided into the slightly different "pouce" measure.