1920's Neverslip pliers

[Plyerman]

I saw these and thought they were kinda cool. They are basically ordinary lineman's-type pliers, but with replaceable hardened wire-cutting edges. Stamped NEVERSLIP NEW BRUNSWICK , N.J. and PATENTED











The cutting inserts slip into a tongue-and-groove pocket, and are held in place with a screw. I was able to track down the patent; No. 1,346,392 was awarded to a Mr. Richard Whitaker on July 13, 1920.

Apparently the "NEVERSLIP" name refers to the parent company, which had been in the horseshoe manufacturing business for many years, famous for their "Neverslip" line of horseshoe calks.

Conjecture on my part, but business must have been slowing down by the 1920's as automobiles took over the roadways from horses, so the company decided to put their forges to use making hand tools. Judging by the number of different advertisements I found on Google Books, they must have introduced their new pliers with quite the full 1920's version of a "media blitz."

Here's an ad from July 1922 Popular Science. There are several others.




 

[Yadda]

Another great tool.  Also goes to show that replaceable cutters were a great idea even in the '20's.

[wvtools]

Your pair is in pretty nice condition.  I have had a few of those and the jaw inserts are always chipped and the pliers beat up in general.

[Plyerman]

The old advertisements say "furnished in 6, 7 , and 8 inch sizes"

This one is the second 8-incher I've seen. Anybody know how uncommon the smaller sizes are to find?

[wvtools]

I think most of the ones I have seen have been 8 inch ones.  I have a pair in one of my Ebay lots with a large chip in the cutting jaws, and it is an 8 inch.

[Nolatoolguy]

Nice pliers you got there.

I wonder the life of those edges compared to the edges on newer pliers today.