This index consists of companies that meet the following criteria:

• American or Canadian manufacturer of stationary power woodworking tools. 
• Making or made products in categories that would be found in the shop of a serious amateur. Companies that make glue spreaders, material handling equipment, etc., are not included. On the other hand, companies that made shingle-making or barrel-making equipment are listed. Go figure. 

For each company listed in the Index, we have tried to get the following information: name, brands, relationship to other companies, years of operation, and product line. Most of the information is incomplete, but we are adding more information as it becomes available. Please contact the OWWM Historian if you can provide more information on any of the companies in the Index, or if you know of other companies that should be added to the list. Not all information below is completely reliable. If you have questions about the reliability of something you read here, please ask.

• Wiki/Knowledge Base
• Machine Serial Number Registry
• Publication Reprints

Sources of Information

One important source of information is the Cornell University "Making of America" archive at http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/. There is a searchable archive of 19th-century books and journals, notably Manufacturer & Builder (1869-1894) and Scientific American (1846-1869). 

Most patent information came from doing some labor-intensive searching at the official U.S. Patent site. If you'd like to research early woodworking patents, Contact Jeff Joslin for some advice on how to go about it. An exhaustive effort to find every single woodworking related patent is in the early stages. Watch the oldwwmachines home page for more information. If you would like to contribute to this effort, please Contact Jeff Joslin.

Most of the smaller companies don't bother registering their trademarks, but there is still some useful information to be found in the U.S. trademark database, especially for more recent companies (1950 and onwards). 

For the history of the many early companies in Fitchburg, MA, see http://www.ci.fitchburg.ma.us/dstreb/history.html. Many personal communications with Frank Morrison have shed considerable light on the companies in that part of Massachusetts.

For the early history of companies located in Grand Rapids, MI, see http://www.rootsweb.com/~mikent/baxter1891/. This site contains a transcript of the 1891 book, History of the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan by Albert Baxter.

For the history of 19th and early 20th century companies in Waterloo County, Ontario, three period sources were used: Waterloo County: Outlook Edition, published in 1914 by the Daily Telegraph in conjunction with the Waterloo County Council; Picturesque and Industrial Galt, published 1902 by The Reporter; Industrial Preston: Illustrated Special Souvenir Number, published 1908 by the Preston Progress. Thanks to Andrew Poynter of A&M Wood Specialty for loaning me these books. Machinery from this area represents my personal, special interest, so if you have any information on companies and products from Waterloo County, I strongly urge you to Contact Jeff Joslin.

For the history of J. A. Fay & Egan Co., Yates-American, Defiance Machine Works, Oliver Machinery Co., and various predecessor and successor companies, see Dana M. Batory's terrific book, Vintage Woodworking Machinery. He reportedly has a new book coming out in the spring of 2002 that covers Crescent, Parks, Boice-Crane, and Baxter D. Whitney. Whee!

The out-of-print book, Planers, Matchers, and Molders in America: 1800 to 1985, by Chandler W. Jones, was a wonderful help. This book was self-published, so you'll have to find a copy via one of the many used-book sources; you can try searching at http://used.addall.com/. If you have specific questions, Contact Jeff Joslin and I can look them up for you.

The Hitchcock Publishing Co. of Wheaton, IL published an index of manufacturers, Wood Working Digest Directory. So far I have the 1955-56 and 1964 editions, plus a 1949 monthly issue. They have a mix of ads and listings of makers of various types of machines and accessories. Unfortunately, the listings are not completely reliable: some companies listed as a maker of machines actually only made accessories, such as cutters. Whenever possible, I have omitted such companies from this index, but no doubt some remain.

There are a handful of companies that were alive recently enough to have had web sites, but are now defunct. The Internet Archive has been invaluable in those cases.

When available, product catalogs and other literature provide some of the highest quality information. See the main page of oldwwmachines.com for links to this material (All of my ephemera is, or soon will be, available there, where "soon" is measured in units of months.)

Many company owners and employees have taken the time to personally respond to my inquiries. Out of respect for their privacy I have not mentioned their names in the index, but I am grateful for their help.

Other information has come from manufacturers' web sites, product catalogs, city directories, personal communications, web searches, and emails from users of the index.

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