Patented & Distinctive Bit Braces
A Research Study
by George Langford, Sc.D.
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Amidon patent, twelve-inch-swing plain bit brace.

Chuck: U.S. Patent No. 226,646, April 20, 1880.
Pad: may also be patented.
 

Walnut pad and wrist handle; when I received this brace, the wrist handle had become cracked by rust swelling up from the steel frame underneath. Rosewood handles rarely do this.  I fixed the wrist handle by splitting it open, scraping away the rust deposits, and then gluing it back together with polyurethane glue (see this link for comparable repairs to a rosewood plane tote).  All well and good, except that the glue welded the wrist handle to the frame.  So well, that I had to glue on a block of pine (drilled out to match the diameter of the wrist) and the work the wrist handle free while holding it through the pine block in a large vise.  Eventually I got it free again.

One of the chuck's jaws has been replaced, and the spring whose attachment hole can be seen in the original jaws is long lost.