# Irwin Auger bit mark chronology



## jschluter (Sep 22, 2013)

I'm restoring/preserving about 50 bits I found hiding in my grandfather's tool box. About half are Irwin bits-mostly in good or better condition-and I plan to give them and several of grandfathers braces to my son who is showing an interest in hand tools. What I wasn't prepared for was his question about the chronology of the Irwin marks. I'm afraid he could have terminal case of the collector virus. Does anyone know of an article on their marks? There are 6 types, 4 with the double line rectangle and 2 with single line script. One boxed mark has IRWIN over US of A and another has IRWIN over USA. A third mark has IRWIN in the box and Made in USA below the box and a fourth mark has The Irwin B?? over Reg US Patent ff. The two linear marks (w/o box) are IRWIN-US of A and IRWIN- USA. And if I have examples of six different marks, there are probably others. Can these marks be used to establish their production dates and, if so, where can I find this info. Thanks for any help.


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## DocBailey (Dec 9, 2011)

John

If you're at all serious about this, then get some pictures posted.
That will form a starting point, from which others can say. for example: "I have a set like your second picture and know for a fact that my father bought them in the late '40s when he was building our house."

Apart from that, we all like photos - that's a big part of what makes the web interesting, right?


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## jschluter (Sep 22, 2013)

I'll try to get some photos BUT I don't have access to good close up equipment. Also, the stamping wasn't skillfully done on some of them. So, we'll see. More to come.


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## wapakfred (Jul 29, 2011)

Without knowing the answer to your question I have a boxed set of Irwin augers, and they are all marked Irwin-USA. They also have the little pamphlet in there that presumably came with the set, and it has a copyright date of 1952. Rightly or wrongly I'm guessing that is close to when my set was made. If you have duplicates of these in 5/8", I'd be interested in buying an extra…the one in my set had the square shank ground off for some reason.


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## jschluter (Sep 22, 2013)

OK, I got some close up photos of the Irwin brace bit marks I have in the bits I've cleaned up. Hope the pictures help with the dating. The second to last photo takes some imagination in the photo. It is the IRWIN over USA in the double line rectangle. The last photo is of a size (?) that I don't recognize. Metric?


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## jschluter (Sep 22, 2013)

Fred, I have 4 #10 Irwin bits. Tell me what mark you have from the previous post and I'll see if I have the one you want.


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## wapakfred (Jul 29, 2011)

My set all have the markings seen in the 4th pic down the list. I had no idea there were so many different markings….....


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## jschluter (Sep 22, 2013)

Fred, my #10's are 2, 3 ,and 6. Sorry But if you can accept one of those, I'll consider it.


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