Henry Brown Scottish Brace

[Eric Brown]

I recently obtained this Henry Brown brace from someone who had "cleaned" off the heavy rust with a hand grinder. I felt that I might be able to save this brace so I purchased it for a low price. Because of the grinder and the pitting, I knew that a lot of hand work would be involved. The hardest part was trying to keep the hexagonal arms flat and in proportion. I used sandpaper wrapped around some square bar stock. I then polished it. To keep things visually balance I decided to polish everything. It's not perfect, but better than it was. Before and after pictures:

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Scotch Before 1.jpgScotch Before 2.jpgScottish After.jpg

[george wilson]

A very graceful all metal brace. In fact,the most pleasing all metal design I have seen.

[Kees Heiden]

Nice job! It looked pretty bad with these ugly grinding marks.

I wonder about these braces, they come up on ebay quite often. Can you fit normal bits for a brace in them? The ones with the square tapered shank? And how do the bits fit, tight or more wobbly? I have some funny braces which were made for removing wheelnuts, as I understood later. Bits do fit, but they woble from left to right alot.

[Rob Luter]

A shame what they had done. Kudos for your efforts in bringing her back.

[Adam Maxwell]

I believe this was a top of the line Scotch brace, with the brass mounting for the pad. Nice find and restoration; this is one of my favorite designs, just because of the looks.

I wonder about these braces, they come up on ebay quite often. Can you fit normal bits for a brace in them? The ones with the square tapered shank? And how do the bits fit, tight or more wobbly? I have some funny braces which were made for removing wheelnuts, as I understood later. Bits do fit, but they woble from left to right alot.

Kees, be careful not to confuse Scotch braces with gent's braces, which are really common (they usually have a thumbscrew in the chuck and a round frame with less graceful swelling). As far as I know, all Scotch braces have a spring catch chuck, and a lignum head, either with brass mounting or some nice beading detail. The frames are wrought iron, and there were at least two quality grades, if I recall correctly.

Any square-tanged bits will fit, but Scotch braces have a spring catch in the chuck, designed to lock into a notch in the tang. Users had to file these notches to fit individual braces, just like the Sheffield pushbutton braces. Of course, you can do without the notch if you're using a bit that doesn't need to be pulled (screwdriver, countersink, etc).

Note 1: These were advertised in the 1800s as "Scotch braces" rather than Scottish. This bothers some people .

Note 2: I did a writeup on repairing mine for wkfinetools.com, but assume I can't link anything here. It's currently the top hit on a google search for "scotch brace" though.

[Jeff Heath]

A great job restoring dignity to a very fine looking tool. I hope it works as good as it looks. That tool will love you forever.

[Jim Koepke]

Great save.

Don't you just hate what people who think they know what they are doing end up doing with a grinder?

jtk

[Kees Heiden]

I wil keep an eye out on ebay for a nice Scothc brace. The are very nice and look like the perfect job for my set of gimlet bits.

[Eric Brown]

I appreciate what everyone has said. However, my 90 year old mother said it looked "Beautiful". I had told her about my buying it and why. She was glad I remembered that I had a Great-Great-Grandfather named Henry Brown. (Nope, not same one - no relation) Still it seems kind of cool. As an additional point, the brace really feels good when in use. The hardened steel used for the spindle and washer (Browns patent) feel real smooth and easy. The polished handle spins easily in the hand. One word of caution to anyone taking the top pad off. Under the brass plate with Browns name on it are two split nut type screws. The top one is left hand threaded with a rare 1/4-24 thread. The bottom one right hand threaded (larger). I had to remake the top nut. To remove them I also had to make a special tool that went deeper than normal split screwdrivers. While I do have a bunch of other old braces, this is one of my favorite ones.

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Braces and Bits Shelves.jpg

[phil harold]

While I do have a bunch of other old braces, this is one of my favorite ones.

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Braces and Bits Shelves.jpg

And I thought I had a tool problem...

nice job bringing that baby back to life!

[Eric Brown]

I don't consider my collection a problem at all. I buy either rare or interesting tools. Usually they are rusty and obtained at low cost. I spend some of my spare time cleaning them up and documenting them. When I retire in about ten years I hope to sell them and make a profit. As far as brace collection go, mine is small. Look at these pictures from Georges Basement (and this isn't all he has).

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BracesAbove.jpgBracesBelow.jpg