Keen Breast Drill

[Boringgeoff]

Hi, a friend of mine has this breast drill branded KEEN inside an elongated triangle on the handle crank. The only information on this drill, he's been able to find, is it was made by M C Gooding of Croydon, England. Apparently this company ceased operations in 1959.
Can any of you knowledgeable lot add any more information to this, please?
Cheers,
Geoff.

 

[Argus]

Hello Geoff......

The name of M C Gooding crops up from time to time - second hand tools and the like. They were a small maker in Croydon, as you already know.
They seemed to specialise in hand-grinders, small drills etc.

If you search the name in Google, the usual stuff comes up, but you'll notice some pages for 'Grace's Guide'.

In one of those guides there are lists of participants in various trade exhibitions, including Goodings, the latest listed was in Birmingham in 1950.
They were shown with an address in 38/9 Keens Road. It is - and was then - a residential street , but a modern map shows a solitary commercial building at those numbers, which is now a motor showroom.

Not a lot else that I can add.

good luck.

 

[AndyT]

I can't add much at all, and probably nothing you haven't already found.
Grace's Guide gives the basics here https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/M._C._Gooding_and_Co
and this nice image from Tooltique clearly shows that the Keen trademark belonged to Goodings.

(from https://www.tooltique.co.uk/shop/vintag ... c-gooding/)

The International Tool Catalogue Library has a 1949 catalogue here https://archive.org/details/MCGoodingAndCoCatalogueNo11 plus a couple of adverts.

which has three very similar models - I'll leave you to check which one yours is, but it might be this, the best of the bunch:



In the first half of the twentieth century, the greater London area was a really important centre of manufacturing, with thousands of small workshops and bigger factories, almost all of which have since disappeared.

Sheffield firms have been well researched, but smaller companies elsewhere (including many in the Black Country) are probably only remembered by a few old tool collectors, who wonder where their stuff came from and who bought it.

Looking through the Goodings catalogue, all the designs look pretty standard, and would have been legitimately copied from US makers such as Stanley or Goodell-Pratt after any rights protection had expired. But Goodings were at pains to point out that they weren't just offering cheaper copies, but were using superior steel and manufacturing techniques. They claim:


HAND, BREAST AND BENCH DRILLS GENERAL SPECIFICATION

All steel used is of best possible quality and components properly machined from it. Castings are of special high tensile cast iron alloy and are unbreakable with fair use. All bearings are bored from the solid and provision is made to absorb thrust where price allows. Gears are properly machined, cut from the solid of best material. Finish is first class, being stove enamel (no other finish can approach this for good appearance). Jaws of chucks are properly hardened and of proper accuracy. All parts are fully guaranteed!

Sounds good to me.

 

[Boringgeoff]

Thank you Argus and Andy, I'll pass this information on to my friend.
Cheers,
Geoff.

 

[Trevanion]

which has three very similar models - I'll leave you to check which one yours is, but it might be this, the best of the bunch:

I'm pretty sure I have one of those somewhere, I'll have to dig it out.