A Brace from the Past

Leonard Clarence Hanna Jr. was a self motivated construction juggernaut. LC was my grandfather who passed away in 1997. In my lifetime I knew PaPa as the guy that drove the white Nissan with the topper on the back and the floor boards filled with crushed McDonalds’ coffee cups. He was an early riser with a restless spirit to build. He worked alongside my dad in the family business constructing homes to sell and to rent. I would go to the job site to work as I grew up and there I mastered the skill of pulling nails that were bent beyond recognition and stacking (and restacking) piles of dimensional lumber. But LC had a whole other career that was before my time as a nail pulling expert, he was a lineman for the Bell Atlantic Phone Company.

LC started working for Bell Atlantic when he was 17 years old and dedicated 30 years to the company. I did not know a lot about this career he had prior to building homes except for some tools of the trade that I would stumble across in a two car garage my grandfather stored building materials in. Searching in the “Two Car Garage” was like searching for treasure, you never know what you could find. I have been known to use his climbing gaffs, which were used to climb telephone poles, to climb some of the local trees in my neighborhood.

Just recently in my hand tool woodworking ventures I stumbled across another tool of his trade. A brace and bit. While researching different human powered boring tools I found that most lineman during LC’s day were issued a “Bell System” Yankee No. 2101 Brace to bore holes in telephone poles and the like. The Yankee brace was the best brace of the day. Excellent quality of the craftsmanship and new innovations in the ratcheting head and the wolverine grip jaws set the Yankee brace in its own category. I called my younger brother to see if maybe we still had a brace from PaPa buried in the two car garage. After locating a brace Nick promptly mailed it to Wyoming. The brace arrived over the weekend and it is indeed a Yankee 2101A North Bros Mfg Co., Philadelphia Brace.
This brace, manufactured somewhere between 1946 and 1956, was right after Stanley purchased the North Bros. company as they were attempting to expand into the brace market. “After the takeover, the North Bros braces and other tools were first marked, "North Bros Mfg Co., Philadelphia, Division of Stanley Tool Works." These "Philadelphia –made" tools seem to have retained the construction quality for which North Bros was famous.” (http://www.sydnassloot.com/Brace/Northb.htm) After 1956 the quality of the now Stanly Yankee Brace dropped off. I gave the old brace a clean up and it works like a dream. One of my greatest joys of working with these tools is the heritage and stories that come with them. Now when I go to bore a hole I think I will employ the help of LC!