Colonel Tools, Sheffield

Liverpool Echo, 20 Apr. 1959

Tools labeled "Colonel Sheffield" have mystified collectors and others for at least 20 years. It was a house brand for Woolworths stores in the United Kingdom in the 1950s. The tools were manufactured by an unknown firm in Sheffield exclusively for Woolworths, and included trowels, paint scrapers, screwdrivers, and wood chisels.

 

History of Nelson & Doble

The San Francisco, California firm of Nelson & Doble was a partnership of two blacksmiths, Thomas Nelson (1821-1907) and Abner Doble (1829-1904). Operating from 1855 to 1878, Nelson & Doble were "manufacturers of sledges, hammers, picks, wedges, stone-cutters’, miners’, blacksmiths’, horse shoers’, pavers’ and railway contractors’ tools."  Their 1872 ad went to to state, "These tools are manufactured from cast steel made expressly for our use, by the celebrated makers, Thos. Firth & Sons, Sheffield, England, and are warranted superior to any in the market."

Thomas Nelson was born 12 May 1821 in Nebthwaite, Lancashire, England and arrived in the US at age 14. In 1842 he married Elizabeth Walmsley in Passaic, NJ, and he would have been a journeyman blacksmith by that time. He was living in San Francisco by 1852. He and his wife apparently divorced, and in 1888 he married Margaret Jennings, who was 39 years younger.  

The article below covers Abner Doble's career. The Wikipedia article on his grandson, also named Abner Doble, gives additional details of the elder Abner's life.

Pacific Coast Mercantile Director, Vol. I, No. 2, June 1872, pg. 37

Report of the First Industrial Exhibition of the Mechanics Institute of the City of San Francisco, 1858

Historical Abstract of San Francisco, Oscar T. Shuck, 1897, pg. 72

History of George W. Ziegler Machinery Co.

George W. Ziegler Machinery Co., Pittsburgh, PA, was a concrete machinery dealer and a manufacturer of concrete edgers and groovers. The company typically abbreviated their name to Geo. W. Ziegler Machinery Co., and known operating dates are 1917-1929. The company was named for George W. Ziegler (1877-1938). One example of their tools has shown up on eBay, and apparently they were offered in cast iron or bronze. 

The Pittsburgh Press, 5 May 1918, pg. 42

Contractors and Engineers, 1924, pg. 117

The Pittsburgh Press, 31 Dec. 1929, pg. 7

     

The Knox Concrete Block Machine

Thank you to a reader, Donovan, for sending these photos of his restored and unrestored Knox concrete block machines. His YouTube video 

demonstrates making a block, and his YouTube channel has more videos about other block machines.

Knox was one of the brands sold by Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 1915. 

 Sears, Roebuck & Co. Concrete Machinery, 1915, pg. 16

History of Dearosa Manufacturing Co.

Hardware Age, Vol. 162, No. 3, 15 July 1948.

Dearosa Manufacturing Co. was operating in 1948 in Brooklyn, NY. They manufactured tools for plasterers and masons, including Blu-Lite finishing trowels and forged brick trowels. By 1952, the firm had moved to Mt. Vernon, NY, and was making forged brick trowels and hawks. They appear in directories through 1958.

Hardware Age, Vol. 163 No. 10, 19 May 1949, pg. 211