bitstock

This can be seen in figure 39 in a transitional-type bitstock (accession 319556) from the Low Countries.

Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 Peter C. Welsh

In a like manner, the 18th-century bitstock of Flemish origin (fig. 46), the English cabinetmaker's bevel of the same century (fig. 47), and the compass saw (accession 61.52, fig. 48) capture in their basic design something beyond the functional extension of the craftsman's hand.

Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 Peter C. Welsh

From these plates can be seen the progression of the bitstock toward its ultimate perfection in the late 19th century.

Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 Peter C. Welsh

The slow curve of the bitstock, never identical from one early example to another, is lost in later factory-made versions; so too, with the coming of cheap steel, does the combination of wood (walnut) and brass used in the cabinetmaker's bevel slowly disappear; and, finally, in the custom-fitted pistol-like grip of the saw, there is an identity, in feeling at least, between craftsman and tool never quite achieved in later mass-produced versions.

Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 Peter C. Welsh

For example, in 1852, Jacob Switzer of Basil, Ohio, suggested, as had Roubo a hundred years earlier, that the bitstock be used as a screwdriver (fig. 42); but far more interesting than Switzer's idea was his delineation of the brace itself, which he described as "an ordinary brace and bit stock" (U.S. pat.

Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 Peter C. Welsh