US1071618A - Attaching tool-shanks to handles. - Google Patents

Description

W. RHOBBS. ATTAGHING TOOL SHANKS T0 HANDLES.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 25, 1912.

3 1 9 1 6 2 g H A m m w a P WITNESSES."

' ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATET OFFICE.

WILLIS F. HOBBS, OF BRIDGEIE'ORT, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE BRIDGEPORT HARDWARE MANUFACTURING CORPORATION, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT, A

CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

ATTACI-IING TOOL-SHANKS TO HANDLES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 26,1913.

T 0 (ZZZ whom 2'15 may concern Be it known that I, lVlLLis F. I-IoBBs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bridgeport, county of Fairfield, State of Connecticut, have invented an Improvement in Attaching Tool-Shanks to Handles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is applicable to various classes of tools in which a shank is attached to a handle, and while adapted to either light or heavy tools is especially adapted to heavy tools upon which great strain is applied in use and there is a tendency toward loosening of the shanks in the handles. It has been common heretofore to provide tools for heavy work in which both tool and handle were forged in a single piece. Tools made in this manner, however, do not give the best results for the reason that where tool and handle are forged in one piece it is necessary to use a relatively low carbon steel, whereas all tools for fine work and especially tools for heavy work require, for the best results, to be made from high carbon steel.

The object of the present invention is to provide a high grade tool and a relatively inexpensive handle which may be attached together by an inexpensive operation so firmly that it is impossible under ordinary or even extraordinary conditions of use to separate the shank from the handle or even to loosen the handle thereon.

With these ends in view I have produced tools and shanks forged from high carbon steel and handles of malleable cast iron and have devised the novel means of attaching the shanks to the handles which I will now describe, referring to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification and using reference characters to indicate the several parts.

For convenience in illustration I have shown the invention as applied to the shank and handle of a screw driver. The principle, however, is equally applicable to various other classes of tools requiring handles.

Figure 1 is a view showing the tool in elevation and the handle in longitudinal section; Fig. 2 an elevation as seen from either side in Fig. 1, a portion of the scale being broken away; Fig. 3 an elevation, the position corresponding with Fig. 1; Fig. 1 an elevation partly broken away, illustrating a slightly variant form of construction of a screw driver adapted for the heaviest kind of work; and Fig. 5 is an elevation corresponding with Fig. 2, showing the shank and handle assembled but not locked together, the tang being reduced in diameter to form a shoulder at the junction of the tang and shank.

The handle comprises a butt 10, a web 11 and a head 12, which may be a single malleable iron casting, and scales 13, ordinarily of wood, secured to the web by rivets 1 1.

15 denotes the shank of a tool, which may be round as in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 5, or polygonal, or square as in Fig. 4.. At the end of the shank is an angular (preferably square) tang, indicated by 16. The head is provided with an angular longitudinal hole 17 extending into a transverse dove-tail recess 18 in the web which is covered by the scale. In the form illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 5, the head is shown as provided with a socket 19 which receives a portion of the shank. In the form illustrated in Fig. 4c, in which the greatest possible strength is required, the shank is provided with a bevel shoulder 20 which runs into the tang and the end of the head is countersunk to provide a shoulder that surrounds the entrance to the angular opening 17 said shoulder being beveled and forming a seat for the beveled shoulder 20 of the shank.

In assembling, the tang is passed into the head, the end shoulder of the shank proper seating itself on the base of the socket, as in Fig. 1, or on the beveled shoulder, as in Fig. 4, and the end of the tang extending into the transverse recess in the web, as clearly illustrated in Fig. 5. The end of the tang (which is considerably thicker than the web) is then subjected to a heavy blow, which flattens and expands the end of the tang causing it to fill the dove-tail recess and making the shank, head and Web as solid and rigid as if forged in a single piece. After the attachment of the shank to the head and web, the scales are attached, as already described.

In the form illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 5, I have shown the tang and web so arranged relatively to each other that the blow is received upon a side of the tang. In Fig. l, the tang and handle are so arranged that the blow is received upon an angle of thg tang. These are details of construction that may be varied Without departing from the principle of the invention, the gist of which lies in. locking the tang to the Web by flattening the end of the tang into a dovetail recess in the Web.

Having thus described my invention 1 claim:

1. In combination, a handle comprising an integral head and Web, said head having an angular longitudinal hole extending into the Web and merging With a larger dove-tail recess therein, and a tool. shank having an angulartang thicker than the Web, said tang passing through the hole in the head and being flattened and expanded in the dovetail recess to lock the parts rigidly together.

2. In combination a handle comprising an integral head and Web, said head having a socket in its outer end and an angular longi. tudinal hole leading therefrom and merging with a larger dove-tail recess in the Web, and a tool shank having a shoulder engaging the base of the socket and an angular tang engaging the longitudinal hole and thicker than the Web, said tang passing through the hole in the head and being flattened and expanded in the dove-tail recess to look the parts rigidly together.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

lVILLIS F. HOBBS. Witnesses A. M. Woos'rniz, S. ATI-IERTON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents Washington, D. C.

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