Info needed on Crown chuck

Amongst the tools left to the museum there is a 4" four jaw independent lightweight Crown chuck. Apart from slight surface corrosion the chuck shows no signs of ever having been used. We also found a backplate with a tiny thread which I haven't yet measured, about 1"x 8 or so. The chuck is marked "foreign", does anyone know where it was made?

Probably of no help whatsoever but I've just looked at a couple of Crown 4" four jaw lightweight? chucks (about 30mm body thickness) that I have, and these are stamped on the front face,

"Genuine Crown" and "British Made" with a crown symbol .

John

May be impossible to find out as the information may be long gone or require forensic analysis of ancient company archives.

The first country to insist imports were labelled was the USA, I think around 1900. As is the way with trade wars others soon retaliated. 'Foreign' just means the item was made for export. Might be Belgian for sale in the UK, German for sale in Italy, Czech for sale in France or any other combination.

'Foreign' often implies dubious quality due to being made somewhere without a track record to boast of. Even today we are suspicious of Bulgarian Champagne! It ain't necessarily so because one reason for remaining anonymous was political unpopularity. For example, India boycotted British Cotton in the 1920s, making cloth marked 'Foreign' more likely to sell than exactly the same thing marked 'Made in England'. Immediately after WW1 the English avoided buying goods identified as German. There are many, many other examples.

Bottom line, a chuck marked 'Foreign' could have been made almost anywhere. Probably not the UK unless it was re-imported. How old is it? Crown brand chucks are made in India

Dave

I would recon from the finish and fit that it is a good Johnny foreigner. It looks like it may date from the 60's. 

It is a design that I have not encountered before, probably common to small chucks. The operating screws are RH thread and screw down into the body. The jaws have a lug which engages with a groove halfway along each screw.

Edited By old mart on 30/06/2019 19:22:41

Edited By old mart on 30/06/2019 19:28:16