Ruger Corp. hand tools-Precision Drill

[pjv]

Haven't been on the forum in quite a while because my Ruger source dried up. Butt...went to a gun show today and came across this neat item from the early Ruger Corporation. Southport, Conn . I knew what it was when I seen it but had never seen one before. So I bought it. It seems complete and works. From what I understand is it was probably made in 1946 or 1947.Anymore information including rarity and value would be greatly appreciated.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

There were several variations. One has a round depression where yours has a rectangular cross pin. Some have painted wood crank knobs instead of the aluminum one. Some have 2 position crank handles for more torque by extending the handle. Some have the Ruger Corp address stamped on the crank handle.

Yours is in better than average condition with quite a lot of red paint remaining on the gear assembly. Value about $250 in that condition.

Your timeframe is about right, I think Ruger Corp was defunct by 1948. I believe Seymour Smith bought the assets, they were only about 25 miles away in CT. Seymour Smith was a tool company that made Enfield Carbine parts during WWII and I suspect there may have been a trade with rights to the Ruger tools going one way and machine shop tooling for gun parts going the other way. The Ruger 1010 bit brace seems to be the only Ruger tool that was continued by Seymour Smith, they made a brace almost identical to it.

Ruger also made straight stick drills and racheted push style screwdrivers.

 

[RST-4]

I love the drills! Of the ones we have, the ones with the round dimple towards the top of the grip seem to be more prevalent, and the ones with the rectangle pin seem to be somewhat more scarce (based on our experience). The grip frame of the standard pistol is very similar to these drills; it even has the round dimple at the top of the grip. It sure seems like Mr. Ruger had an idea about the .22 auto pistols maybe even before he started making tools.

We also have Ruger 1010 braces and an ARTISAN brace that looks identical to the 1010 (other than the name). WMG, were the Seymour Smith braces marked A R T I S A N, or was this another company that might have purchased/made the same brace that Ruger made?

Thanks for the pic and the info guys,
RST-4

 

[golferboy426]

Hey I looked at that too The guy had 2 of them. I didn't like the price as for me they are duplicates but his asking price was fair, even better if you successfully negotiated some

 

[chet15]

The ARTISAN marked braces were probably sold through the Gamble-Skogmo retail chain as ARTISAN was one of their trade names.
On the ARTISAN marked brace though, I still think Seymour made their brace (marked Seymour) and somewhere down the line Ruger must have purchased the rights to make that brace (or Seymour made them for Ruger?). The Seymore marked brace and the Ruger 1010 brace are nearly identical except for the ratchet switch area.
At any rate, there is a Seymour marked brace that I believe dates quite a bit earlier than Ruger's #1010 brace (WMG...you got any file picks of that one???...your Seymour with the wood handles???).
I think once Ruger got the production rights from Seymour, Ruger made the 1010 type drill with full chuck knurling first, then the 1010 drill with a half-knurled chuck was last.
Then after that you get the ARTISAN marked braces (post Ruger?) with half-knurled chuck.
I understand there is an article in the latest RCA Journal about Seymour's braces...haven't read it yet though.
Chad

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

Yes, I do still have some pics online.

Here is the old Seymour Smith (top) compared to a full-knurled chuck Ruger:

Here is a later Seymour Smith (top) compared to a half-knurled check Ruger:

Here are some pics showing various features of the Seymour Smith 2310 bit brace:

 

[pjv]

Thanks to all with the replys, I have a gentleman I met who supposedly has some more Ruger "stuff"that he said I would be interested in. I'll keep you all posted as to what exactly it is.

 

[ddd482]

Thanks to all with the replys, I have a gentleman I met who supposedly has some more Ruger "stuff"that he said I would be interested in. I'll keep you all posted as to what exactly it is.

that is the kind of guy to know!

 

[chet15]

Thanks WMG. Do you have a file pic of the top of the ratchet on that old one? That's really the kicker (that shows its age) even though those old designed wooden handles do a good job of that too. But, you can definitely see a timeline of features between the wood handled Seymour, to the rubber handled Seymour, to the Ruger 1010's (full knurled chuck to half knurled chuck), and then to those marked ARTISAN (look identical to the Ruger 1010 with half-knurled chuck except for the name ARTISAN and...the chuck).
Something else about this type of brace. I have only seen one other make of brace that had a ratchet type chuck like the Seymour/Ruger, this being a Stanley if I remember right, which I believe also had a model number of 1010 stamped on it. All other braces designs like this that I've seen have two gears aligned at a 90-degree angle to each other in order to make the gears work. Of course with the Seymour/Ruger ratchet design, you don't have to swing the arm around a constant 360 degrees to drill a hole. And the ratchet makes the Seymour/Ruger reversible...whereas with the other type you have to swing the brace the opposite direction by 360 degrees.
Chet15

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

chet15, it is nice a sunny day here today so I took the old (natural wood handle) Seymour Smith brace outside and took a pic of the ratchet select switch for you:

 

[chet15]

There we go! Thanks WMG!! Now with all these pics, one can definitely tell a natural evolution of things.
Chet15

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

These are all Seymour Smith braces of the latter variety.

There are at least two variations, with and without the company name on the handle:

If anyone has a spare ARTISAN to trade for a Seymour Smith, I'd do that.

 

[jimbo1096]

Mods outta make this a "tool sticky".
Good info and very interesting though pjv's pics need to be sized somewhat smaller.

 

[Addies214]

Very interesting posting thanks!!

 

[deserttrans]

Yep, some great info.