Author Topic: H.K. Porter bolt cutters  (Read 2566 times)

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Offline moparthug

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H.K. Porter bolt cutters
« on: August 12, 2018, 07:30:40 PM »
A neighbor was cleaning out his shed and asked me if I wanted some worn out bolt cutters before he put them in the scrap pile. Chances are they are just junk Chinese cutters, best case would be a 1970's Craftsman set of cutters, however my curiosity got the best of me (as usual) and I wandered over and took a peek. As scruffy as these look, this was quite a surprise. A big H.K. Porter set of bolt cutters, and I think they are quite old. I need to do some more research on the number 2 model, but this company first patented a set of bolt cutters in 1892.

I drag home old rusty tools all the time, but these are my first "vintage" bolt cutters. :-)
Rogue River, OR.

Offline Northwoods

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Re: H.K. Porter bolt cutters
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2018, 08:02:44 PM »
That last picture tells us that those bolt cutters have earned their pay!
The ORIGINAL Northwoods.

Offline mvwcnews

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Re: H.K. Porter bolt cutters
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2018, 11:52:31 PM »
If you know how, the pivots for the HKP cutting jaws are adjustable so you can dress the jaws & get them re-set to cut (just not hard steel ).  The jaws on the old ones were hard enough to cut common bolts of that era, but are not hard enough to cope with newer hard steels.
Read WWI pieces about wire cutters & the difficulty the men on the front lines had cutting the super hard alloy barbed wire developed for the German army.  Kraeuter finally came up with a wire cutting pliers with enough leverage and hard enough cutters to do the job, but that was in the summer of 1918 & by the time they were getting them out to the field the war was over.

Offline lptools

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Re: H.K. Porter bolt cutters
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2018, 05:01:46 AM »
Hello, Moparthug. I like the idea of trying to salvage the original jaws. If all else fail, you might be able to find replacemnts, if you plan to use the cutters. Nice find!!!! Regards, Lou
Member of PHARTS-  Perfect Handle Admiration, Restoration and Torturing Society