Replies

1. 
   AlanTurner | Feb 22, 2003 01:46am | #1

   I wonder if I have a set like yours.  I've always thought mine were made by Bahco, which has now merged with, or acquired (I think) Sandvik.  I got mine mail order, from a fellow named George, who lived in upstate New York, and whose name I got from Tage Frid, whom I met at a weekend seminar at Bucks County Community College.  Anyone know the "George" I recall?  I also purchased a bow saw from him, but I've never made it sign like Frid (hardly surprising).

   Anyway, great chisels.  Mine are a fairly bright colored steel.  The red of the handles is a bit of a dark red, well shy of burgundy.  No markings on the steel.

1. 
   wamara | Feb 22, 2003 02:08am | #2

   Thanks for your interest. I found many references for Jernbolaget on the web. Most all were written in Swedish. I did find a couple of antique tool dealers who had these chisels with wooden handles rather than the hard red (dark red) plastic ones that I have. The only ones I saw reference to were already sold. I know there is another company called Berg that makes edge tools in Sweden. I don't know if Jernbolaget is still in business or if they are, if they still manufacture chisels.

   Thanks again

   Wayne

1. 
   AlanTurner | Feb 22, 2003 02:26am | #3

   CAn you post a pix of yours? I'll try to do same on Monday.

2. 
   eddiefromAustralia | Feb 23, 2003 12:24am | #4

   Wayne,

   It could be that this company (Jernbolaget) was taken over by "Eric Anton Berg" or Bahco.  Bahco use a red moulded plastic handle with a shark moulded into the handle in older tools, their modern logo is on their website here.  Berg were also in Eskilstuna, making me think that there "may" have been a rationalisation of both companies into Bahco.  I am under the impression that Bahco took over Berg, but I may be mistaken.  Yes, I've seen the logo you mentioned too, and they were a separate brand.  Here's some that were for sale until recently.

   Bahco are far superior to most of the modern offerings, and one of the few brands of chisels to maintain their quality from the 1940's levels. 

   These are a brand well respected by tradesmen.  In fact, some hand tool afficianados use these out of choice.

   Bahco are still on the shelves over here.

   Cheers,

   eddie

   
   

   ---

   Edited 2/22/2003 4:26:55 PM ET by eddie (aust)

1. 
   UncleDunc | Feb 23, 2003 01:00am | #5

   I don't read Swedish, but it looked to me like a lot of those Swedish web sites were giving an address for Jernbolaget, or maybe addresses in several different cities. So I would guess that they're still a going concern.

   Just an observation. I still don't have any advice on tracking them down. Have you looked to see if Babel Fish will translate Swedish web pages?

3. 
   eddiefromAustralia | Feb 23, 2003 01:15am | #6

   Take two, and remember to post the photo this time.

   Hi S4S,

   Here's a couple of images scanned off my user chisels.  I suppose the wooden Berg probably shouldn't be a user with the sticker in this nick, but anyway . .  I inherited it when my father died, so I'm going to use it and not sell it.

   Same logo on both handles  - Bahco took over Berg then, I'm assuming.

   Cheers,

   eddie

   
1. 
   AlanTurner | Feb 24, 2003 03:21pm | #8

   I forgot to take home my digital cameral from the office, but did remember to look at the handle.  No markings on the blade, but clearly BAHCO on the red handle, and looks similar to the one you posted a pix of.  Great chisel!  Who sells them in the US, if you know?

1. 
   eddiefromAustralia | Feb 25, 2003 09:29am | #9

   Hi s4s,

   Sorry, no idea of a US distributor - when I looked on the Bahco website it doesn't appear that they have one for their chisels, maybe if you check there you might find one.

   Maybe someone else knows???  If anyone else knows of a US source for these chisels please jump in!

   Cheers, eddie

4. 
   dirtstirrer | Feb 23, 2003 01:44am | #7

   Wayne,

        I collect Winchester chisels a little, and while browsing Ebay looking for them, came across quite a few Berg chisels.  There is practically anything your looking for on there.  Might want to check out the Ebay national sights too. 

                                       Steve

5. 
   lwangerin | Oct 04, 2010 12:44pm | #10

   Have begun a search for Swedish chisels because the 1 inch chisel that I have matches the picture of the wood handled chisel. When I was a kid in Rochester, NY I bought a swedish hunting knife which I still have - I never had to sharpen it - it was razor sharp then and it still is. The white bone handle is now very yellow, however.  Back to the chisel - It is my best of many including Marples,  SORBY and a few Stanley 750 series.  I did buy a set of German out-cannel chisels from Garrett Wade, hack-sawed the ends off and ground the larger ones to in-canel (done with hand crank grinder, files and scrapers). Now see that Traditional Woodworker catalog (just received) has sets of in-cannel chisels. The Swedish chisel came to my dad from a family friend in the mid 60's.

6. 
   user-6964276 | May 27, 2021 01:54am | #11

   I have a set of around six of these chisels, I saw the following on a Sawmill Creek Forum when reserach on the web.

   I guess it was made by Erik Anton Berg as he was also in Eskiltuna and are very fine chisels and highly sought after..

   The story of Erik Anton Berg in short terms...

   This is a short summary of the life of Mr Erik Anton Berg and his company E. A Bergs Fabriks AB (E.A. Berg MFG. Co. LTD).

   Mr Berg was born in Sweden in the town of Eskilstuna well-known for the manufacture of knives and hand tools. As a young boy he was practising at the Heljestrand and Johan Engström knife-factories. Only 23 years old Mr Berg started his own to forge and manu-facture razors. He rented a place in one of the Rademacher forges which today is a museum where you can see how it started. The story says that he borrowed 500 SEK to start the activity but after that he only used his own capital. However the most important for his success was his professional skill and his spirit. To underline how small and modest circumstances were in the beginning it can be mentioned that the wife of Mr Berg took part in the manufacture by stoning she edges of the razors right in her kitchen.

   However the activity grew very fast and soon he had to move to larger premiers on the opposite side of the street. The success for the products was based on his use of a very high quality plain carbon steel in combination with the hardening operation. He also knew that the forging was of great importance for the quality of the finished product. Therefore Mr Berg very soon established good contacts with the leading experts of steel, forging and heat-treatment. For example can men-tioned that melted lead was used for heating the tools for hardening which gives a very uniform temperature and which also was carefully controlled. Mr Berg was also a pioneer about quality control including testing of the raw material, testing of the hardness of the products after hardening and testing of the finished products. The result of this was a very high and uniform quality of the finished products which was the main reason for fast growing sales, of the products in Sweden and in many other countries.

   In 1889 he bought a site for a new factory building and later on he had to enlarge the site and the factory in several steps. International knowledge of the products was also spread by the world-exhibitions e. g. in Chicago and Paris and also in Stockholm 1897.

   The manufacturing program was enlarged in several steps. In 1896 was the manufacture of carpenters tools started and in 1898 were pliers added to the program. Other new added products were garden tools 1914, shears for sheet-metal 1924, bolt cutters 1924 and finally butcher- and kitchen-knives in 1933.

   In 1901 the company was transformed to a public company, E. A. Berg Manufacturing Company Limited totally owned by the family. In 1903 Mr Berg died only 47 years old.
   His five daughters now became the owner of the company. The most important person for develop-ment of the company for the future was Mr C. Gustaf Andersson who 1928 took over as managing director and staid in that position until his pension 1959. Mr Andersson was primarily a very skilled technician but also very clever regarding marketing. Under his leadership the design and performance of the products were improved and the manufacturing technique modernized. The culmination of his long time in the company was building of new modern factory of 10000 sqm in a new manufacturing area of the town of Eskilstuna. This factory was very well planned just for hand tools and was mentioned as the most modern tool-factory of the world.

   Regarding wood-chisels can be mentioned the wooden handles were manufactured in own factory using a hard type of wood called masur-birch or curled birch. In 1950 the plastic handles were introduced and from 1969 the chisels were delivered only with plastic handles.
   At the time for the pension of Mr Andersson the five Berg sisters were quite old and as nobody in the families were prepared to take a leading place in the company it was decided to sell the company. Buyer was AB Bahco, the largest hand tool-company of Sweden. Bahco was a large manufacturer of adjustable wrenches, spanners, sockets and pipe-wrenches but was missing mainly pliers in there product range. Therefore it was a good co-ordination between the two companies which started in 1959. The year after Bahco also another large tool-company in Eskilstuna, Eskilstuna Jernmanufaktur AB med “Anchor” as a trade mark and mainly knives, scissors and wood-chisels in the manufacture. Bahco brought the two companies together in Eskilstuna and in the beginning it worked out quite well with 700 employees at the most. However later on in a period of declining business Bahco decided de reduce the number of factories and to move the total manufacture in Eskilstuna to their main factory in Enköping. It means that from 1970 pliers and wood-chisels have been manufactured in Enköping. Regarding trade marks AB Bahco decided from the beginning to only use the Bahco trade mark but in combination with “The Shark” and “The Anchor”. It means that the trade mark “Berg” has not been used after 1960.

   Later on AB Bahco took over some other hand tool companies as follows. In 1974 the F. E. Lindstrom company in Eskilstuna mainly manufacturing smaller pliers for the electronic industry. In 1980 Record Ridgeway in Great Britain, a large manufacturer of the Carpenters tools but after a few years this company was taken over of some British people. And in 1988 Belzer-Dowidat in Germany was taken over. This company was mainly manufacturer of pliers, screwdrivers, spanners and sockets.

   But 1992 it was time for Bahco to go the opposite direction. The total AB Bahco Tool Group was taken over by AB Sandvik which mainly is a steel-mill but also manufacturer of carbide cutting tools and hand tools such as saws and carpenters tools.

   But the Sandvik ownership last for only a short period. In 1999 AB Sandvik sold their total hand tool business to the American hand tool company Snap-On-Tools. But the manufacture of the Bahco hand tools was still left in Enköping and also the Bahco trade mark was kept and also to be used also for the former Sanvik products.

   However the next step was not so good for Bahco and Enköping. This year, 2006, Snap-On-Tools decided to concentrate their production in Europe mainly to there factories in Spain. It means that the total production of hand tools in the former Bahco main factory will be ended during 2007. But the manufacture of wood-chisels will be kept in Sweden as it already has been moved to another Bahco factory in Sweden which also is managed by Snap-On-Tools.

   This is at least for the moment the end of the story which was started by Mr E. A. Berg in 1880.

   Enköping 2006-10-21
   Folke Möller
   (Employee at the Berg and Bahco companies 1949-1993)

   Other sources:

   “Beskrivning över Eskilstuna med omnejd” published in Stockholm 1938

   ”Eskilstuna – ett kvalitetsbegrepp” published in Stockholm 1949

   After reading this seems Berg was seperate company from Jern but where bought together by Bacho
   Last edited by Johnny Kleso; 11-07-2008 at 11:31 PM.

7. 
   _mj_ | May 27, 2021 10:15am | #12

   Looking forward to the next entry on this thread in 2032.

8. 
   ysu65 | May 27, 2021 04:38pm | #13

   Great steel, hasn't sharpened them in 17 years!!!

9. 
   _mj_ | May 27, 2021 09:28pm | #14

   More math...he had them for 25 years when he started this thread.

1. 
   john_c2 | May 28, 2021 02:44am | #15

   He got the chisels in 1978. What were you doing in '78?

10. 
    _mj_ | May 28, 2021 07:58am | #16

    Freshman year at the Bronx High School of Science.

1. 
   john_c2 | May 28, 2021 09:58am | #18

   Kids these days. I was graduating.

1. 
   _mj_ | May 28, 2021 11:01am | #19

   You are Olde.

11. 
    ysu65 | May 28, 2021 08:19am | #17

    Saw an issue of Fine Woodworking, thought it would be a fun hobby. Found a piece of cherry the previous owner left in the garage rafters, thought it looked interesting, looked for more, then different woods. Bought a chisel for a project, decided I needed more sizes. Many more sizes. Saw a router being used on a wood show, bought one. Then another. Next a contractor saw, moved up to a table saw. Added a jointer, and a planer, and dust collectors, and on and on and on. I expect to be featured on "Hoarders" soon.