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Kathleen Playing On Some Old Tricycle looking contraption.

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J. Wiss & Sons Pinking Shears

Pinking shears were patented in 1893 by Louise Austin. Pinking involves cutting decorative openings in the body of fabric or cutting a decorative edge for squares and blocks for quilting.  

Pinking shears create a sawtooth or zigzag pattern. Woven fabrics with a straight cut along the grain with normal scissors often fray, resulting in seams ripping out and that stringy look.   Not to get too technical, but pinking shears cut fabric on what is referred to as "the bias".  Basically at a 45 degree angle to warp and weft (woof) threads.  To illistrate this, the warp threads are the horizontal threads and the weft/woof threads are the vertical or filler threads. 

Cutting the fabric on the bias, as pinking shears do, reduces the potential for fraying.  Wow, I bet you didn't realize you would become an expert in pinking shears.

In 1931, Samuel Briskman, of Brooklyn, invented pinking shears and submitted 3 patents for them in 1931 & 1932 and he received patient approval in 1934.  After that, he formed the Pinking Shears Corporation, which milled the teeth into the blades.   The J. Wiss & Sons Company, who was founded in 1848 by Jacob Wiss, had exclusive rights to sell the new pinking shears in the US.

The 1931 & 1932 patents included what would be known as the  J. Wiss & Sons Pinking Shears model A and Model C. 

The Model A 1934 shears pictured below is Approx. 10.5" long overall.  It has large and comfortable handles.  Cutting blades are replaceable by simply removing 3 screws. 

The Model 3 is slightly shorter in length measuring approximately 9".    While both scissors were made starting in the mid to late 30's, the Model A tends to be harder to find.  Finding these for under $20 is a great deal.

Underwood Typewritters

The Underwood Typewriter was created through the genus of a German-American inventor named Franz X. Wagner who owned   The actual "Underwood" name comes from John T. Underwood, who was funding and eventually purchased Wagner's company early in its history.

The first production typewriter was produced in 1865 and went into full production in 1870.  It was created by Rev. Rasmus Malling-Hansen of Denmark.  He invented what was referred to as the Hansen Writing Ball.  It look nothing like what people refer to as a typewriter, looking more spherical in shape.

In 1874, Underwood started a manufacturing company producing ribbon and carbon paper and one of their clients was  E. Remington and Sons.  When Remington started producing ribbons and carbon paper themselves, Underwood made the jump into the typewriter business funding the Wagner Typewriter Company, which eventually became Underwood.

The first typewriters produced under Wagner/Underwood where in 1896 and 1900,  these early typewriters had "Wagner Typewriter Co." printed on the back.  When looking for Underwood Typewriters, finding a model # 1 or 2 is an amazing find indeed.  There were only about 12,000 of these models produced, so they are very rare.  Later versions, like the one I purchased (Model 6-11), were made in the early 1930's can be found for $50-$200 depending on condition.  My fiance (Kathleen), purchased mine for $50, which is a heck of a deal considering the condition it was in.

Pictured above and below is my Underwood typewriter model 6-11.  The number 6 and 11 are displayed to the left and right of the Underwood logo

Hotchkiss Stapler

In Japan the word for the Hotchkiss Stapler is called ホチキス, ruffly translated hochikisu, but as it turns out staplers in general are called hochikisu.  In Korea, staplers are called 호치키스, or hochikiseu.  It is presumed the Koreans borrowed the word from Japan.

So where did Hotchkiss actually come from?  Lets back track to the 1800's where an American fellow by the named of Benjamin B. Hotchkiss lived.  He was a tinkerer and wanted to get into the arms business.  Unfortunately for him, this was right after the American Civil War, when the thought of deadly weapons wasn't a high priority.

Benjamin not taking no for an answer decided to pack up and move to France in 1867.  Once there he formed the Société Anonyme des Anciens Etablissements Hotchkiss et Cie, producing weaponry, most notably the machine guns used in WWI.

Around the same time Eli H. Hotchkiss a nephew of Benjamin founded an office supply company.  Eli was also a creative type and worked in designing paper fasteners which later would be called Hotchkiss staplers.  These Hotchkiss designs were eventually exported to Japan and since there wasn't a Japanese equivalent word for stapler, they became known as hochikisu after the name Hotchkiss.  At some point the Koreans borrowed the word from Japan to form the word 호치키스, or hochikiseu.

The Hotchkiss stapler pictured above and below, is one I recently purchased from Esty.  Funny side note.  I had no idea how big this stapler was until it arrived.  Well to my surprise it was only about 4" long and 3.5" tall.  Much smaller than I had imagined and turned out to be pretty funny. 

Why so funny you ask?  Well I also purchased a pair of scissors for Kathleen (Antique R Heinisch scissors made in the late 1800's).  I thought these would be about 8" to 10" long.  Both items arrived at the same time.  When we opened the package containing the scissors, they were huge, almost like a sword.  Massive scissors indeed.  Next we opened up the box containing the stapler and it was so small.  I guess you just had to have been there.  Needless to say we busted out laughing.

Antique Jump Rope

I am always on the search for various antique or old school workout products.  One that has always been great fun is the jump rope or skipping rope as it is referred to in England.  The origins of the jump rope are not certain.  It is believed to have evolved during Medieval times, but no one really knows.

Today's jump ropes are really fast and doing moves called double or tripple unders is common place.


Many of the older jump ropes were made simply from rope, but some found that using wooden bobbin for handles worked really well.

Here is a vintage jump rope I picked up.  It has beautiful, naturally aged antique wooden bobbin handles.  They're solid and in excellent condition, with solid brass ring fittings - for reinforcement, when they carried yarn in a woolen mill factory, long ago.

The rope cord itself, is derived entirely from natural, tightly woven jute fibers (the main component in high quality twine).

The handles are identical, and are engraved; one with "SALT.SALTAIRE", the other handle with "SALTS".   This indicates that they originally belonged to the Salt's Mill. The famous Salt's Mill textile factory was founded in 1851 in the Victorian village of Saltaire, in West Yorkshire, England.

Marx Pressed Steel Marcrest Toy Truck

Toys are awesome picks given the right price range. Look for toys that are made out of pressed steel from the 1930s - 1940s. If you find one for $25 or less, you can usually flip it for at least $25-$50.

I really love the look of the Marx Pressed Steel Toy Trucks.

Here is one I got that is a vintage 1940's Marx Pressed Steel Marcrest Dairy Delivery Truck.

Victorian Croquet

The history of Croquet started somewhere in Ireland, moved to England and eventually found it's way to the US. At first, Croquet was more of a women's game, but men being what they are found that they could tweak the game to make it more manly.  Croquet was also a game where both women and men could play together. 

When looking for antique croquet sets, look at the croquet posts.   Usually the older sets have more ornate croquet posts.  Balls in general are made from wood.  The mallets will also be made of wood.  The mallet heads tend to have more detail than today's mallets.  Older sets coming from England will usually be older and worth more.

Really nice mallets can sell for $80-$200.  Post can actually sell for even more and are often used in Folk art.  Don't pay more than $5 for balls, if you intend to sell them.  The set below was purchased for $235 and I simply had to jump on it.  A collector would probably buy it for $500-$1000.

Jacks London is one of the higher end Croquet manufactures.  Their history runs long and deep.  The Croquet inventor (At least in England) was John Jaques II.  He won a place in sporting history and a Gold Medal (still in the families possession) for introducing Croquet to England at the Great Exhibition in 1851.   It was especially popular in India, reportedly played by The Viceroy himself with a solid ivory mallet, made by Jaques as part of their finest set.  Jaques still do repairs if needed at the Jaques HQ in Edenbridge. 

In England the metal Wickets are called Hoops.  Hoops will generally come in sets of 6, being the number on a standard croquet lawn.  One hoop (the first) will be marked with a blue top, and one (the last) with a red top.  The four other hoops are typically white.  The regulations for hoops say that they should have uprights which are 5/8" diameter, a gap which is between 4" and 3¾" wide, and the crown of the hoop should be 12" above the ground. In practice, for clubs and tournaments, the gap of the hoop is normally set to the diameter of the balls in use, with a clearance of between 1/16" and 3/16".

If the lawn to be used is of the usual rough back lawn nature, then choosing hoops which are 4" wide may well be a good idea for casual garden play. The more serious player, and particularly on a higher quality lawn, may want to go for a tighter hoop width, more like 3¾"

You may not have know this, but Croquet was also popular as an indoor game.  Of course much smaller mallets and balls were used.

When buying on line, make sure you know which Croquet type is being offered, namely the outdoor version or the indoor version.


Below is a fantastic croquet set I picked up off of Esty.  It has some amazing victorian style posts, with great looking clubs.  The Croquet set was probably made between 1900-1930s.  The balls are made out of wood.  The set was found in found in Sun Valley Idaho probably at an estate sale.

Here are some links to some newer Croquet sets
Teak Croquet Set

I really like the look of this Teak Croquet Set.  It retails for $735.  It was created in 2008 combines smart design and quality construction to create a modern interpretation of the classic lawn game. A collaboration between designers Hans Thyge and Akiko Kuwahata, this set packs efficiently into the included teak box, providing compact storage when the game’s not in use. The box has an integrated handle for easy transport and is compact enough to be thrown in the car and taken to the park.   The set consists of four mallets, four balls, 10 hoops and two pegs, and should be played on grass.