Repository of Information about Pike / Norton / American Novaculite

[cotedupy]

Here to compliment @Adamo22 's label thread is some various old information, catalogues, &c.

Starting with some essential reading: The Griswold 1890 Geological Survey.

 

[cotedupy]

1934 Norton-Pike 'How to Sharpen' and 1928 Pike 'How to Sharpen'

 

[cotedupy]

1905 Pike 'Oilstones How to Select and Use Them' and 1915 Pike 'Sharpening Stones History and Development'

 

[cotedupy]

1935 Norton Wholesale Discount Structure, and Cover Letter (mentioning the branding change).

Accompanying Catalogue is too large a file size to upload: https://ia902905.us.archive.org/10/...orton Oilstones Abrasive Specialties 1935.pdf

 

[cotedupy]

Some history regarding the now defunct Norton Abrasives UK in Welwyn Garden City: A Little Bit of Norton History... - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/a-little-bit-of-norton-history.611061/

I'm done for now, but if anyone has anything else - do please add...

 

[Adamo22]

Man do I have some home work to do tomorrow! @cotedupy thank you

 

[Frank Shaves]

Thanks for posting these documents!

 

[Legion]

I think this thread should find its way into the sticky links.

 

[cotedupy]

I think this thread should find its way into the sticky links.

Can you change the title to say: 'Repository' not 'Depository'? It annoys me every time I see it.

 

[Legion]

Can you change the title to say: 'Repository' not 'Depository'? It annoys me every time I see it.

Yep, no worries.

Suppository was it?

 

[ErieSurfer]

Heaping some more on the pile. Two of my documents wouldn't upload because they were too large. The 1913 Pike How to Sharpen and What to Use is a little under 12MB and the 1935 Norton Oilstones Abrasive Specialties is a little over 25MB.

 

[2bit_collie]

Thanks @cotedupy and @ErieSurfer for loading thsee!

 

[cotedupy]

Heaping some more on the pile. Two of my documents wouldn't upload because they were too large. The 1913 Pike How to Sharpen and What to Use is a little under 12MB and the 1935 Norton Oilstones Abrasive Specialties is a little over 25MB.

Ooh cheers, a few there I don't think I've seen. I look forward to them!

The 1902 pamphlet you have there, which I seem not to have included, is particularly interesting... because it contains the first and only historic acknowledgement I've found that 'Turkish' Oilstones came from Crete.

And almost as interestingly - this particular paragraph is omitted from the 1905 version of the same pamphlet.

Now call me a bluff old cynic, but if for instance you had recently bought up all of the Sutton Ouachita quarries, as well as your main market competitor (George Chase) in selling the stones, then to complete one's monopolisation of the market - it might be a good idea not to let anybody know where Turkey stones could still be found readily available...

 

[cotedupy]

Heaping some more on the pile. Two of my documents wouldn't upload because they were too large. The 1913 Pike How to Sharpen and What to Use is a little under 12MB and the 1935 Norton Oilstones Abrasive Specialties is a little over 25MB.

Well these new documents that ES has shared are already proving their worth handsomely, in answering one of the great mysteries surrounding the evolution and history of the Norton Sportsman.

For many years it was a Coarse India x Washita (WIP13), and today a Coarse x Fine India (IBP34). Though at some point there was clearly an intermediary stage; the troublesome teenage years when the Norton Sportsman went somewhat 'off the rails', and became the JKP13 - a Coarse Crystolon x Queer Creek. So when did this change occur...?

Many (me) had assumed the answer now lost to the sands of time. But ho! Look here at the 1955 pamphlet advertising the WIP13 Sportsman:

And compare to the 1959 Sportman [sic] iteration:

And isn't that a weight off everyone's minds eh!