Cheney 12oz Riveting Hammer

[mikeswrenches]

Guys,

Like many of these old companies it can be a little difficult to determine exactly when they started and ended...and Cheney is no different.

The following information is from the EAIA Directory of American Toolmakers and may shed some light on what actually went on.

Henry Cheney was born in Otsego, NY on 12 Jan., 1821 and died in 1878.

He reportedly made hammers there before moving to Little Falls in 1856.

On 4 July, 1871 he received a patent for a hammer with a nail holding feature. 
http://www.datamp.org/patents/advance.php?pn=116553&id=14485&set=3

However, the hammer most associated with the Cheney company, is this one with the "ball bearings" in the claw that were used to hold the nail.  It was patented  March 22, 1927, by Arthur E. Taylor of Elyria, Ohio, long after Henry Cheney died.  See link to patent below.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=Wn9TAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=1621761&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q=1621761&f=false

In 1874 he bought the S. H. Farnam factory, and only made axes after that.

A Cheney Hammer Co., or Henry Cheney Hammer Corp. was still in business in 1949, but that may not have been formed until after Henry's death in 1878. They cite a founded date of 1836 , which seems early for Henry to have been working on his own.  He would have been just 15 yrs. old.

It would seem that there are more questions than answers.  For instance what mark/marks were used on the hammers that Henry made prior to his death in 1878.

Who were the people that ran it after that time?  Obviously someone continued the manufacturing of the nail holding hammer, since there are too many out there for only  7 years of production.

What marks were used until the apparent demise of the company in 1949?

Why did he quit making hammers and switch to axes?  Most people would not have closed what appeared to have been a successful business.

Note:  Some of this information conflicts with my other post.  Which is correct?  I don't know.

Mike

[jtc]

The information about Prentiss Vice buying the Henry Cheney Hammer Company is very interesting and coincides with the information that I've been able to gather about the Henry Cheney Hammer Company. In 1925 Elmer Sidway Mulford took over management of the Henry Cheney Hammer Company. The Prentiss Vise Company was bought by the Chas. Parker Vice Company sometime around 1950, possibly 1954, which is the last date I've found for the Henry Cheney Hammer Company. Now I need to track down more information on the Chas. Parker Vice Company...

I've posted my findings on the Henry Cheney Hammer Company here: http://jtc.net/hchc/

[Papaw]

Thanks, jtc.

How about finding the Introduction Forum and telling us a bit about yourself and your old tool interests?

[Branson]

Conflicting statements abound.  The Davistown Museum has a much different patent date:

http://www.davistownmuseum.org/bioCheney.html

I've got two Cheney hammers.  One is the typical bell faced model that I suspect dates from the 1950s.  The other is the older style head, that tapers back from the face to the eye.  Same ball detent feature, but the slot for the nail head is designed to hold rose head cut nails.

I sure would like to know more about these.

[jtc]

Branson,

Davistown is great, but their Cheney entry is a bit weak, e.g. there is no Ostego, NY. It's Otsego, NY.

The tapered face is listed as "Plain" in the 1904 catalog reprint.

Also, please see my page about the Cheney Nailer which explains the differences between Henry's Patent Nail Holder (designed for cut nails) and the Cheney Nailer (designed for wire nails): http://jtc.net/hchc/nailer/

[jtc]

There's also this from the May, 1917 Little Falls phone directory.  I'm
not sure if the second entry is related in any way; the hammer-making
Henry was deceased by then.  Maybe it's his son?

"Cheney Hammer Co The Henry, 74 W Mill Lttl Fls 323-J
Cheney Henry, r, 676 E Monroe Lttl Fls 808-M"

Mike, thanks for pointing this out! I had the lot numbers for the company, but not a street address. Unfortunately it appears that this location is now covered by the Overhead Street bridge, part of New York route 167.

The Henry Cheney residential listing must be for the hammer makers grandson, born to his first son Charles Henry Cheney, in 1887. He would have been 30 years old when this directory was published. Henry the hammer maker also had another grandson, by his daughter Eunice Marie, Henry Cheney Jones, who is listed in the same directory as Jones, HC.

[rusty]

>S. H. Farnam factory

EAIA - makes that Steven Head Farnam, which brings up an amusing bit of trivia.

Apparently he did well selling to Cheney, he owned a pretty mansion in Oneida, NY

There is a photo on page 30 of a real estate rag. (link below)

Apparently...it's considered haunted.....

http://www.chattbar.org/downloads/HCH111111B.pdf

[scottg]

I had a 12 oz pretty much just like this. No telling what brand.
 For a time I worked at the local garage with an old friend. I used it almost everyday.
 When my time was up I left him that hammer. I had more.
 He was totally unimpressed and hardly grateful. Little hammer like that.

 About a year later he calls me up practically in tears. The hammer is gone. It has installed every seal and bearing since I left it there. But its gone and he is hysterical. So I go over to see. 
 He --needs-- another one! It has to be exactly like it, nothing else will do.
 I tell him its the commonest rivetting hammer size, and don't worry, but he is flipped. I go home and send him the address for a dozen on Ebay, but he calls right back and is afraid there will be something different about any of those.
   Lord, my load is heavy.
 
  So I began to dig though the accumulated junk and after a while I came up with a head.  Most aren't marked and I doubt this one was either, but they are pretty much all in a standard pattern.
 
 The first hammer had hardly more than a stick for a handle. A worn factory handle with a tape bandage around the neck. Not exactly a prize. But taking on every old broken wreck of a car or truck in the valley, I never brought my best tools into that arena.
 
    I pulled out some tools and part of a broken shovel handle, and carved a real handle. A teardrop grip like I like myself (stole the pattern from Duncan Pfyfe but I expect he got it from someone else as well).
  About my own preferred working length too. 

  I bring it over to him.
 Its different, he says as he looks it over with a jaundiced eye.  Not too enthused I must say.
  But I know him, and I left it.

 About 6 months passes.
   Last week I was over there for something or other.
  There was the hammer, well patina'd handle by now. Probably used every single day by the look of it.
 Its sitting in the middle of a clear space on the bench, (the only clear space). It was obvious nothing was getting near that hammer, but him!
 
   I looked at it, looked at him.  He saw me look, but didn't speak and neither did I.
     I just winked as I walked away.
      yours Scott 

[jtc]

>S. H. Farnam factory

EAIA - makes that Steven Head Farnam, which brings up an amusing bit of trivia.

Apparently he did well selling to Cheney, he owned a pretty mansion in Oneida, NY

Very interesting! Who doesn't like a good haunted house story? Unfortunately I see a couple of problems with this connection. According to The Water Power at Little Falls, Part 2 -- An address by John B. Koetteritz of Little Falls, delivered before the Herkimer County Historical Society February 13, 1904:

Lot No.1, sometimes called Mill Island, was originally sold to John Brewer and in 1846 this lot was sold by the National Fire Insurance Company to S. M. and A. Richmond who sold it in 1851 to John B. Laurent, who established thereon an ax factory in which at first the Richmonds and later on Stephen Farnham became partners. After the death of Mr. Laurent, Mr. Farnham became the sole owner and he sold in 1873 to Henry H. & Levi Walrath. They conveyed in 1874 to Barney Van Vechen and he in the same year to Henry Cheney. After Mr. Cheney's death, James H. Ives purchased the property in 1881 and sold it to Ira F. Trask and George W. Trask. Later on James B. Dorr acquired an interest. In 1892 Mr. Ira F. Trask was the sole owner of the ax factory. Little Falls axes have always enjoyed a good reputation in the market and of late years had become a standard make. When the edge tool trust [a.k.a. the American Axe & Tool Company] was formed Mr. Trask was persuaded to sell out his prosperous business. The shop was closed, the machinery taken away and the promised salary was paid only for a short time. In 1896 Dettinger and Draper bought the property and sold to Ignatz Lovenheim. A disastrous fire destroyed the shops on Mill Island a few years ago and Mr. Lovenheim rebuilt the same in brick. His factory building and power accommodates now the following concerns: The Consumers Electric Light and Power Company, the case shop of Dettinger and the Lunstrom Book Case Factory. The fall at this lot is 18 feet and the machinery is driven by a 48 inch Camden Wheel.

So it appears that Farnham (with an 'h')  made his profit from the Walrath brothers rather than Henry Cheney. Maybe one source or the other misspelled Stephen's last name, but either way there were at least two owners between him and Henry.

[jtc]

It would seem that there are more questions than answers.  For instance what mark/marks were used on the hammers that Henry made prior to his death in 1878.

Who were the people that ran it after that time?  Obviously someone continued the manufacturing of the nail holding hammer, since there are too many out there for only  7 years of production.

What marks were used until the apparent demise of the company in 1949?

Why did he quit making hammers and switch to axes?  Most people would not have closed what appeared to have been a successful business.

These bits of conflicting information are exactly what lead me to create my Henry Cheney Hammer Company site!

I have two Cheney hatchets. Both are marked "H. Cheney Corp." on an upper arc, "Little Falls, NY USA" on a lower arc and "Tool Steel Guaranteed" on two lines in the middle, e.g.



After Henry died, his son-in-law, Sheldon Frederick Jones helped manage the company. Within a year or so, a stock company was formed and Schuyler R. Ingham (son of William Ingham who owned the mill Henry was using to produce hammers) was the president. George D. Waterman (Schuyler's nephew and William's grandson) was the secretary and treasurer. Sheldon Jones stayed involved for a couple of years before he left to start a trucking company in Little Falls, which eventually grew into a coal delivery company.

This group apparently ran the company until selling to the Prentiss Vice Company in 1925. Prentiss sent Elmer Mulford to Little Falls to run the factory and continued as the Henry Cheney Hammer Company. This arrangement came to an end in 1954 when the Charles Parker Company of Meriden, CT (famous for their double-barrel shotguns) bought the Prentiss Vice Company and shut down the Cheney Hammer division. I haven't tracked what happened from there, but there is a German tool company, Picard, which still sells hammers very similar to the Cheney Nailer.

I'm not convinced that Henry stopped making hammers to solely make axes. He certainly used the same markings on both axes and hammers. In the 1875 New York State census, his occupation is listed as "Hammer Manufacturer". After his death the axe factory was sold, yet his son-in-law remained involved in the hammer company. It seems more likely that Henry solely made axes in his axe factory, while continuing to produce hammers in William Ingham's mill.

[jabberwoki]

I have one like that but it`s a stilleto and it`d one of my fav hammers.
Nice score.

[jtc]

I posted a page for my collection of Cheney Riveting Hammers. I only have three so far -- a No. 76 (4 oz.), No. 75 (7oz.), and a No. 71 (18oz.). According to the M-WTCA reprint of the 1904 catalog, they offered seven sizes of "Plain" riveting hammers and a 1 lb. adz-eye riveting hammer.

[jtc]

Engineering World, 1925: (Vol 26 P135)

"Prentiss Vise Co., 106 Lafayette street, New York City, has purchased the Henry Cheney Hammer Corp., Little Falls, N. Y., which it will operate as the Cheney Hammer division of the Prentiss Vise Co. Reed-Prentice Co., Worcester, Mass"

I found another source with the same information:

Richfield Springs Mercury Thursday July 2, 1925:

Another large Little Falls business concern passed into the hands of an out of town concern last week, when plans were consumated for the sale of the Cheney Hammer Company to the Prentiss Vice Company of New York. The new owners took immediate possession. The company takes over the capital stock and equipment. The new owners expect to increase sales and production through a larger sales system and united production efforts. They are the largest vise making concern in America and maintain a foundry in Watertown. They were organized in 186S, while the local company was founded by the late Henry Cheney in 1836.

[Branson]

I have one like that but it`s a stilleto and it`d one of my fav hammers.
Nice score.

I've been sold on Stiletto hammers for many years -- the old ones, made for Hamilton Baker.  Looking for information about them is what led me to Tool Talk.  I have several and a couple of years ago I found a 2# Stiletto cross pein for $5.

jtc, this is a trove of information about Cheney!  What a lot of research, what a lot of findings.  Thanks.

[jtc]

Thanks, Branson!

Motivated by the feedback I've received from this forum, I made another breakthrough!

According to the Utica Daily Press Friday April 8, 1955:

Cheney Hammer Corporation ceased operations about a year ago, when it was purchased by the Collins Company. The Cheney Hammer company was founded by Henry Cheney, a blacksmith from Fly Creek in Otsego County. The firm made hammers at the same site for more than a century.

The Collins Company, of Collinsville, Connecticut, was the largest manufacturer of axes in the nineteenth century. It was in their employ that Elisha Root invented the important industrial technique of die casting.

I'm still fairly certain that Henry didn't start making hammers in Little Falls until the Spring of 1856 -- which would mean they were in the same location for 98 years, which is almost "more than a century."

Now to figure out why Collins bought Cheney and shut it down...