Historical Summary:
Billings & Spencer began in 1869 as the Roper Sporting Arms Company, a partnership of Charles E. Billings and Christopher Spencer. Both founders were notable inventors (Charles invented a Combination Bowie Knife-Pistol in 1868 which was patented), and Billings in particular was one of the pioneers of the drop forging process for hand tools and the Drop Forging machine itself. The company's early products were drop-forgings for the arms and
sewing machine industries.
The company was reorganized as the Billings & Spencer Company in 1873 (Hartford CT), and began producing open-end wrenches and other tools shortly after this. Some products were based on designs developed and patented by Charles E. Billings, and the company also licensed designs from other inventors.
Adjustable wrenches were a particular specialty during the latter part of the 19th century, and Billings produced many different styles of the smaller "bicycle wrenches", as well as pipe wrenches and tongs, pliers, and fixed wrenches. By the early 20th century Billings & Spencer had become one of the largest tool makers, in addition to being a dominant force in the drop forging industry. Billings produced the heavy machinery for drop forging itself, and made a business of helping other companies set up their drop forge operations.
In 1915 Billings & Spencer raised additional capital to fund expansion, and the company name was changed to "The Billings & Spencer Company" as part of a reincorporation. An article on page 903 of the October 30, 1915 issue of Automobile Topics entitled Billings & Spencer Capital Increased notes that the capital had been increased to $300,000 and the company reincorporated, with a slightly different name. (The small change in the company name turns out to be useful in estimating manufacturing dates.)
Attached below in one photo is the advertisement from the October, 1917 issue of Automobile Topics showing one of Billings' giant drop hammers, with a selection of other tools in the background.
1920s Operations
In the 1920s Billings began to stumble from its leadership position in the tool industry, as the company was late to recognize the importance of alloy steel in toolmaking. In addition, Billings took a step backwards by introducing a line of heavy forged male-drive sockets, at a time when the rest of the industry was rapidly switching to machined and broached sockets. These miscues made the 1920s a lost decade for Billings from the standpoint of its competitive position, although the company continued to refine the production of its carbon steel tools.
In later years Billings made some acquisitions to augment its own product lines. The 1939 catalog announced the acquisition of the Bemis & Call company (B&C), an old-line maker of adjustable wrenches and other tools. B&C had previously acquired the rights to the well-known Coes monkey wrenches, and thus both the B&C and Coes product lines were then available through Billings. In the early 1950s Billings acquired the Peck, Stow & Wilcox (Pexto) company, another old manufacturer that had been a dominant force in the 19th century tool-making.
Later Operations
In 1962 Billings was acquired by the Crescent Niagara corporation, a holding company that had previously purchased Crescent Tools. Crescent Niagara subsequently acquired the tool operations of Barcalo Manufacturing and the Bridgeport Hardware Manufacturing company. The Billings product lines continued in production for some years under Crescent Niagara, but were eventually merged into Crescent's own product lines.
Billings & Spencer Sliding Combination Knife - Sportsmans (1896)
B&S knives are not easy finds at all and quite rare, and were made between 1890 and 1914 – my understanding is that there were only 3 patented knives – a 1892 Sliding Knife, 1896 patented combination Sliding Knife marked with 1892 & 1896 patent dates (and a variety of other combination tools as part of patent and a Butterfly Knife patented in 1908. Pure luck landed me this one. This knife was their second line produced and was the combination sliding knife with tool accessories and advertised for sportsmen in Forest and Stream magazine in 1903. It has a knurled metal handle which was indeed found on all their knives – never any other handle materials to my knowledge.
Basically the knife and tools are opened by a pin and spring mechanism that locks all into the handle. The pin which is spring-loaded is pulled up and the whole inner structure slides outside the handle where one can choose their blade. Subsequently the remaining tools are folded back inside the main structural foundation and slide back into handle where the sliding pin locks it all in place. The blade found on this knife is exactly the same found on the 1892 patented Sliding Knife. This knife is one of the variations found in the patent 554,046 – 3 screwdrivers and one blade. Closed length is 4 & 1/2".
As a side note they made a sliding screwdriver tool also with the same 4 screwdriver attachments along with a blade and another version had a sliding button hook along with a blade – all covered under the same patent 554,046.
The links to patents 554,046 for my knife and the other patent 470,777 stamped on this knife are http://www.datamp.org/patents/search/di ... ,777&type=
and http://www.datamp.org/patents/search/ad ... 2531&set=5
For posterity there is a photo in next continued post of B&S' first knife - a Sliding Knife from the 1892 patent... have a photo from the auction but do not own it (though I tried
....So those are all 3 of the only knife models that B&S made between 1890-1914... all in the same thread LOL... I would love however to see other knives that anybody has that show a similar mechanism with the pin and sliding mechanism!!! And I am not talking about box cutters
))For those interested a Butterfly or Ballisong knife is found at this AAPK link: viewtopic.php?t=17739 … This was the first American –made Butterfly knife and patented in 1908. It was advertised as a Sportsman’s Hunting Knife in the Iron Age Journal of 1909.
Thanks for looking and wanted to share it as I believe it is quite unique in terms of metal handled knives and not your normal knife with a screwdriver like a TL-29 for sure
) Again B&S did not make anywhere the amount of knives as they did tools so I am quite happy to be the caretaker of one of these examples....The following are photos/sketches with some captions to explain: of the factory, the knife trying to depict how it works and other aspects and an ad showing my knife from the Forest and Stream magazine published in 1903.
Billings & Spencer Factory Painting 1898:
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