These hammers were found tucked away in a large metal box underneath the workbench in Frank Bostner’s shop, which had stood undisturbed for almost forty years, until Easter Sunday 2014.
This first group of Adz-Eye Nail Hammers have obviously been put through some serious wear and tear testing.
This group may have been used in creating Frank’s Monuments
Tinners’ Paneing Hammer
Masons’ Hammer
Heavy (2-3 lbs?) Double Cross Pein Hammer
(not found in any catalog)
Prospectors’ Pick Hammer
Masons’ Hammer
Massive Planishing Hammer (not found in any catalog)
A pair of Machinists’ Ball Pein Hammers
Another pair of Machinists’ Ball Pein Hammers
Even More Ball Pein Hammers
In this group we have a 16 oz. Full-Finish No. 95 Machinists’ Ball Pein with the old-style decal that includes the model number. On either side we have smaller ball pein hammers with a thick oil finish on their heads and linseed oil on their second-growth hickory handles. As we’ll see, many of Frank’s hammers have this same finish.
On May 1, 1943 the company published Price List No. 26 which introduced new 800-series model numbers for the “Government Black” versions of the hammers they were offering in accordance with War Production Board Limitation Order No. L 157. This is the only finish produced during WWII, or at least the later half of it. Undoubtedly Frank was intimately involved in formulating and applying this finish. He certainly saved many fine examples.
More Adz-Eye Nail Hammers
Cobblers’s Hammer and Blacksmiths’s Cross Pein Hammer
Slate Roofing Hammer?
Collins Axe
A Plain Face Cheney Nailer
Adz-Eye Farriers’ Hammer
Type 3 Cheney No. 777 Adz Hammer
Compare this No. 777 to the following...
Two Odd Ducks
These two hammers may be the most interesting find in the entire trove. They are not Cheney hammers. They are Triple-Claw hammers from the Chisel Claw Hammer Company of Hoboken, New Jersey. Hachig A. Ayvad was granted U.S. Patent 1,773,931 on 26 Aug 1930 for this unique hammer design. It had been speculated, based on the shape of their handles, that Cheney manufactured Ayvad’s hammer. Finding not one, but two, out of a collection otherwise exclusively from the Henry Cheney Hammer Company, virtually proves this hunch to be correct — clearly Frank Boster was making both Cheney and Ayvad hammers.
From this angle you can clearly see all three claws and the chisel edge
These hickory sticks were recycled as firewood after they were infested by wood bores.
Any documentation Frank kept was recycled as rodent nesting material.
Grindstones from the hammer factory waiting to be recycled as parts of monuments.
That is one big bolt!
A prototype of the Cheney 35H Bench Vise.
Note Connecticut Map
