Patented & Distinctive Bit Braces, a Research Study
by
George Langford, Sc.D.

Updated January 22, 2006
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GIANT GRIP heavy-duty brace, marked surreptitiously, GERMANY, on the bow underneath the pad.
Mug shot of Giant Grip brace
 A mystery.  This brace is labeled only, GIANTGRIP.  I've found a couple of U.S. ratchet patents with enclosed pushbutton-operated pawls (2,233,091 and 1,388,927) but neither of the cited patents have pins on which the pawls pivot.  Nor have I dared take this one apart.

The chuck looks familiar, but I have not managed to spot any relavent patent at all.

The extra slot in the end of the body of the chuck allows the jaw carrier to be removed from the chuck; and it allows the gripping of a very wide, flat-tanged bit.  Alignment of the jaws is critical, as they engage the threads of the shell in only one correct way - turn the assembly around and it goes in crooked.  There are no ball bearings in the chuck; the jaws will not close safely on any shank below about 3/16th inch; and the chuck seems designed to accept flat-tanged drills, so it may be either a very old or a more modern design ... but please note the ball-bearing pad, which dates the brace as relatively late. 

No patent numbers or dates appear anywhere on the mechanism.  However, the Germans made it their practice to copy expired US patents, for braces to be marketed in the U.S.A., so as to avoid any risk of infringement of contemporary (unexpired) patents.  If the German brace used an expired patent, that proved that the concept had passed into the public domain.