This hammer does not appear in the 1904 catalog. It’s close to a No. 10 (20 oz.), 11 (16 oz.), or 11 1/2 (13 oz.), but the claw isn’t as curved as the illustration in the catalog. The markings appear to date from the 1917-1925 period, though they may have continue to have been used beyond that. Given that they include "Little Falls, NY" they must predate July 1954.
Cheney Machinists' Ball Pein hammers were included in the toolkits of Pierce Arrow automobiles. Interestingly they put the Pierce logo on the right handed side, where the Cheney markings would normally be placed. The Cheney markings are from 1917-1925. Pierce went out of business in 1938. It appears that there were at least two sizes — 12 oz. and 16 oz. It is not known if these hammers were given unique model numbers, but are equivalents of Nos. 96 and 95, respectively. Thanks to John Peters for this fine 12 oz. example!
Just when you think you’ve seen everything... A Cheney Corp. six inch adjustable wrench! It’s clearly marked, “Little Falls, NY.” Sorry the pictures aren’t so great — sometimes you take what you can get...
There are few clues to the date of production for Cheney wrenches. There is a 1920 trademark filing, published in 1921, which states that the company produced hammers and wrenches. They were probably produced between 1917 and 1925 while Titus Sheard Hose (20 Mar 1890 - 24 Nov 1948) was managing the company. U.S. Patent 1,397,214 was issued on 15 Nov 1921 to Titus S. Hose for an Adjustable Wrench. However, he did not assign this patent to the company and his design does not match known examples of Cheney wrenches.
The Henry Cheney Hammer Company was purchased by the Prentiss Vise Company in 1925. In 1948 both the Prentiss Vice Company and the Henry Cheney Hammer Company were sold to the Charles Parker Company of Meriden, Connecticut. The Charles Parker Company also made vises. Somewhere along the line the Cheney Hammer Company produced the 35H bench vise..
Be sure to check out the prototype of this vice found amongst Frank Bostner’s Tools.
Perhaps the rarest product of the Henry Cheney Hammer Company — an 1899 Indian head penny, counter-stamped with the markings found on hammers listed in the 1904 catalog — such as the No. 58 Plain Brad Hammer shown below for comparison.
On May 27, 2013 this penny sold for $204! That's a whopping 20,400% gain over roughly 114 years — an average of roughly 179% per year. Not bad. If only this model scaled...
