The Stanley Model Shop: 100 Years of Special & Custom Rules

by Scott Lynk, Phil Stanley

Overview

The Model Shop was a special department at the Stanley Rule & Level Company where all new products and custom and special rule prototypes were created and tested for evaluation by management and customers. The Stanley Company has produced hundreds of these out-of-the-mainstream products which have now become sought-after collectibles.

Authors Phil Stanley and Scott Lynk have collaborated to document in this new book the nonstandard rules made by Stanley as they explored market needs and responded to customers’ inquiries, orders, and modifications. Included are the rules made by Stanley in the 1876–86 movement to convert to the metric system and both the custom and special rules and the stock rules currently in the inventory of the Stanley Model Shop.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493070022
Publisher:	Astragal Press
Publication date:	12/15/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	128 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Scott Lynk began collecting Stanley rules in the early 1980s and has written many articles on the subject for tool magazines. He wrote and published Stanley “Special” and Custom Rules in 2002. He lives in Vergennes, Vermont.

Philip Stanley has written four books on antique measuring instruments and patents, including A Sourcebook for Rule Collectors with Rule Concordance and Value Guide, Astragal, 2021. He has appeared on Antiques Roadshow as an appraiser and is a member of Early American Industries Association, the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association, the Oughtred Society, and Antique Tools and Trades in Connecticut. He lives in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction ix

The First Stanley Broadside/Price List and the Beginning of Custom and Special Rules xi

Special Rules and Measures (SR) 1

Non-standard rules made by Stanley to explore possible market needs or to create prototypes for possible future products

Custom Rules and Measures (CR) 25

Non-standard rules made by Stanley in response to inquiries or orders from customers for non-standard products

Long Rules and Measures (LR) 47

Extra-long rules, both special and custom, worthy of mention

User-Modified Custom and Special Rules and Measures (UM) 65

Stanley standard rules modified by purchasers to either extend their functionality or to incorporate them as part of another product

American Metric Bureau Measures (AMB) 81

The rules made by Stanley as part of the 1876-1886 movement to convert the U.S. to the metric system

Model Shop Rules and Measures (MS) 109

Custom and special rules currently in the inventory of the Stanley Model Shop

Ordinary Rules in the Model Shop Inventory (OR) 161

Stock rules by Stanley and other makers currently in the inventory of the Stanley Model Shop

Appendix A Some Reference Points for Dating Stanley Rules 183

Appendix B Notes and New Information Regarding Rules Originally Described in Stanley "Special" and Custom Rules 185

A Brief Bibliography 203