B&S Rex

Here's an ugly looking (really) but interesting mic.
Back in the 20's n 30's B&S had a less expensive line of tools called 'Rex'.
This one was from early on in the production run as it has the adjustable anvil and the frame was only painted black in the recess, not the entire frame as was done from the mid 20's onward. At some point in its life the thimble with its narrow band of knurling at the end and decimal equivelants table was replaced with the adjustable type thimble. At that point or after it had the barrel and thimble hard chromed. Then someone replaced the end cap with a plain finish one. Later still someone used a pair of pliers to get it off leaving big gouges in the knurling and cap itself. I smoothed the cap with emery paper a bit but otherwise will leave it as is.
The frame is stamped '2d quality' and 'pat pending' which is why I figure the ribs of the
frame were not painted black. Not very collectable but its fun to look at and imagine all that its seen. Besides ugly beaten tools need love too.

What is most interesting is the stamp "2nd Quality"..... that I have never seen....... I have a few REXs and I think one of them has a nickel plated frame.... I'll have to dig it out to check..... Starrett also made a mic with a plated frame to compete at this price point......

Nickel plating was cheaper ? Interesting, didnt know that. Can you post the Starrett too?
Cant tell whats wrong with this mic. Its worn but measures okay through its range.
Maybe 2d quality tools were sold to schools for a discount.

I think that the 1897 B&S catalog lists nickel plating of nearly everything they sold as an available option...adding that in certain cases they didn't recommend it. When nickel electro-plating first became a viable proposition it was widely seen as a potentially effective rust preventative. The Springfield Armory had a series of trapdoor rifles nickel plated along with some S&W Revolvers and I've recently learned that they also had a group of light cavalry sabers plated along with all sorts of horse equipment. The experiment extended well into the 20th century with the so-called "black nickel" finished saber scabbards around 1905.

Nickel plating was pretty common on pistols starting in the 1850's or 60's. Silver plate was also used back then. Nickel was used on many watchmaker tools from the 1870's. Chrome started to replace nickel around 1928 and had pretty much taken over by the 1940's.

Nickel plating is dirt simple to do. It was only waiting for batteries to become common, hence the 1850's date. I bought the solution from a jewelry supply house in the 1960's and plated brass, steel and cast iron parts. I have heard that chrome is much more difficult to plate.

Larry

Interesting. Now that I think about it from what I've observed nickel plate seems to hold up better on firearms than tools.
Also whenever I see chrome peeling off a tool its always from the 60's or 70's. On the older stuff it just seems to wear off smoothly.

In order to stick well the base metal should be flashed with copper before the nickel is applied. This wasn't understood early on so even some expensive firearms, such as S&Ws didn't have the copper flashing and the nickel often flakes off. When the flashing step was understood it was used on better quality arms and, interestingly, both S&W and Colt set aside frames and other parts that had surface flaws that would show up in blueing to be copper flashed and nickel plated...

Also, chrome is generally applied over base layers of nickel and copper. Nickel is the tough metal which protects the base metal from corrosion. Nickel can be polished up to a shine, but it will tarnish over time. The chrome is put on thin, and is primarily there to protect the nickel from tarnishing.

I'm talking about "bright" or decorative chrome here, not hard chrome plating, which is a somewhat different process.

Most problems with peeling plating are from skipping steps in the process, such as not fully rinsing or not copper flashing.

Bruce Johnson