Bench&Brace

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Millers Falls

Millers Falls spent sixty years as America's best boring-tool maker before it ever built a plane, and when it finally entered the bench plane market in 1929 it did so with castings and machining that matched Stanley at a lower price. The planes never sold in Stanley numbers, which is precisely why they are the best value in vintage American planes today.

  • founded 1868
  • USA
  • 9 model pages

A Millers Falls bench plane is usually the same quality as its Stanley equivalent and sells for half to two-thirds the price, because collectors chase Stanley and users have not caught up. It is the first brand to look at once you know what size you want.

No published type study covers this maker to the precision Stanley's does. Date one from its numbering scheme, its markings and catalogue appearances, and expect a decade rather than a year.

Company names over time

The name on a tool is itself a dating clue, because it changed when the company did.

NameUsed
Millers Falls Manufacturing Co.1868–1873
Millers Falls Company1873–1982

Timeline

  • 1868Levi Gunn and Charles Amidon found the business at Millers Falls, Massachusetts, initially around the Barber ratchet brace patent.
  • 1912Main manufacturing consolidates at Greenfield, Massachusetts. Tools are marked with either town depending on era, which makes the town name itself a rough dating clue.
  • 1929The bench plane line is introduced, entering a market Stanley had held for sixty years.
  • 1931Millers Falls acquires the Goodell-Pratt Company of Greenfield, absorbing a large catalogue of drills and small tools overnight.
  • 1950The streamlined 'Buck Rogers' planes appear, with a distinctive art-deco lever cap and red detailing. Loved or hated, never ignored.
  • 1982The company ceases independent operation. The name has changed hands several times since and modern tools carrying it are unrelated.

Collecting notes

  • Buy Millers Falls when you want a user. A No. 14 in good order does everything a Stanley No. 5 does, and the price gap is real money.
  • The frog on many Millers Falls planes is painted red. It is original, not a previous owner's idea, and cleaning it off costs you value.
  • The 'Buck Rogers' streamlined models are the exception to the value rule - they are collected for their styling and priced accordingly.
  • Millers Falls hand drills, particularly the No. 2, outsold the planes many times over and remain the tools the company is best known for.

Bench Planes

Sources