There are many aspects to tool identification. Maybe you were brought to this site through a reverse image search such as google lens. Maybe you just call it a cranky turny thing and need more information. If it has a crank and you can turn it then it is a machine. If it is not a machine, is it a stake? That is the first aspect.
Most tinner’s tools have a maker mark of some kind. It may be a brass tag or stamped into the body. The fact that it is marked S Stow & Co, or Peck Smith MFG Co, or Roys & Wilcox, or Seth Peck, or J Wilcox Portchester or Sawpit NY, or J & E North Berlin CT, or J W Bulkley it is a good chance it is a tinner’s tool.
The next aspect is date.
Now you know who made it. Do you want to know when?
Tinner’s tools can be dated with the above information and with the location which many tools have stamped on them. For instance we know that the town of Sawpit NY changed it’s name, in 1837, to Port Chester NY. Thus, a tool with that Sawpit mark is older than 1837.
Now we look at dates and it is a range. Some narrow others wide.
With the power of the internet, we have been able to correct many of the earlier lists such as Frank Whites Tinners Tool Checklist.
Seth Peck 1819-1831
Seth Peck & Co 1831-1843
Peck Smith & Co 1843- 1853
Peck Smith Manufacturing Co 1853-1870
N & G Taylor 1810-1936
Jacob Brombacher 1833-1860
Brombacher & Sons 1846-1860
Brombacher & Depew 1860-1863
Charles Brombacher 1863-1887
Brombacher Incorporated 1887-1897
Josiah Wilcox 1828-1850
Roys & Wilcox 1847-1870
Wilcox & Roys 1837-1849
Solomon Stow 1834-1847
Solomon Stow & Son 1847-1849
Solomon Stow & Sons 1849-1851
Stow & Co 1851-1853
S Stow Manufacturing Co 1853-1870
J Nixon & Son 1835-1862
J E Hull 1860-1880
Isaac J Hough 1842-1858
F Roys 1840-1849
A.W. Whitney 1844-1870
J & E North 1824-1854
Hopefully the tool you have is listed here. If not contact us.
The next aspect if to determine what the machine does and that sounds like the subject of another blog post.