I.D. Help--Ever See This Mark?

[FortyTwoBlades]

It's on a scythe blade and looks like the crown may have been stamped over "Oakland, ME" but the surface pitting and low quality of the stamping makes it difficult to tell. I'm wondering if this has ever been seen on related tools, like axes (often axe and scythe companies were the same, especially in the Oakland region if that is really what it says.) I've simply never seen this marking before.

 

[BG_Farmer]

Did you try rubbing with chalk? That sometimes helps.

PS looks distinctly English.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Did so just now and it confirmed my suspicion that the text is an over-stamped "OAKLAND ME"--the crown just covers the O, A, and most of the K. But I can't find any references to an Oakland manufacturer with a name that would be appropriate with this stamping. The closest I'm finding is John King & Cyprian Roy, but that would be odd because King and Cyprian are last and first names respectively, so why the crown with a C instead of an R...? Makes me think it may not be them, especially given that records indicate that they operated under the name "King & Roy".

 

[BG_Farmer]

Cool. With the crown, I was thinking it might say "England", but Oakland it is!

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Yeah it's definitely not an English blade!

 

[M3mphis]

Baker, Sanford J.** Oakland 1898
Tools Made: Scythes
Remarks: Tom Lamond (personal communications) notes that Sanford J. Baker of
Oakland has Pat. No. 615,518, Dec. 6, 1898 for a scythe. It is shared with John King, also
of Oakland.

From: http://www.davistownmuseum.org/PDFs/Vol_10_Registry.pdf

Maybe that will be helpful, who knows!

 

[M3mphis]

There are so many Kings!

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

Already looked through that whole list. None of the Kings in Oakland have an association with the letter C other than King & Roy, but that seems to fit about as well as hammering the wrong piece into a jigsaw puzzle.

I've written the Davistown Museum in the hopes that perhaps they have an idea.

 

[Steve Tall]

My guess is that these blades were bought from an Oakland maker by a hardware distributor (perhaps named Crown Hardware, which would explain the logo with the Crown and the C).

There's online evidence of several Crown Hardware companies, including this one in Connecticut:

"Crown Hardware Mfg. Co., New Haven, Conn., has been organized by... to manufacture hardware and kindred metal goods."
from Iron Age, 1932

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

That's what I'm leaning towards as well. The typeface and text of the stamping most strongly resembles that used by Emerson & Stevens, though the overall form isn't distinctive enough to tell for sure.