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An Unnecessarily Complicated 1930s Hedge Trimmer [1]
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Date: 2025-04-27
This is a pair of Depression-era Wiss garden hedge trimmers. A pair? English is weird.
Grammar aside, Wiss was well-known for their scissors and shears, but they also made gardening tools like pruners, clippers, snips and trimmers. This design was sold from 1929 through 1934, according to the product catalogs archived here.
For comparison, this is our modern-style hedge trimmer that we bought at a hardware store in the 80s. If you buy a new one today, it won’t be fundamentally different, except for more plastic and no natural wood. They’ll go for $20-$40. More detail on the differences between the old Wiss and our 1980s clipper later.
Our first (and only, until now) hedge trimmer, bought circa 1985.
As for Wiss & Sons Company, it was established in 1848 by Jacob Wiss, a Swiss immigrant in his early 30s at the time. The Newark, NJ business prospered, earning a reputation for quality affordable cutlery, focusing on scissors and shears.
I remember my mother and grandmother having Wiss scissors. Mom’s were off-limits to us kids; we had to use the crappy kitchen drawer scissors. We currently have several pairs in various sizes; they’re as good as or better than what you can buy new. Decent examples on eBay go for ten to thirty bucks. Better yet is garage or estate sales — You can inspect and handle them, rather than going by pictures. That’s where I got two nice pairs for basically pocket change.
Anyway, Wiss was ultimately sold to Cooper Industries in 1976. Cooper promptly moved manufacturing from Newark to points south and eventually overseas. Today, only the name survives. Other than that, there’s no connection between today’s Wiss-branded products and pre-1976 ones. An all too familiar American story.
On to this particular trimmer. I saw it on eBay for forty bucks. These aren’t commonly seen at garage sales around here. It looked complete and solid, and I’m a sucker for cast iron tools, so now it’s mine.
It came with a good healthy layer of grime. What you see in the photo below is not patina, it’s dirt. Shiny dirt, but still dirt. So the whole thing got a thorough scrubbing with mineral spirits and a toothbrush. Pro tip: Ask for a few extra toothbrushes each time you visit the dentist. I’ll never run out of them.
Wood bits are still intact and on good and tight. I’m not removing them.
After initial cleaning, here’s what I have. There’s virtually no black paint left on that cast iron. The green you see on the handle isn’t factory original. It instantly dissolved away under the paint stripper.
99.9% of crud removed. A milestone. This calls for a beer!
Here are some more in-process shots. The trademark is nice and clean. I wish I could say the same for that nut and bolt.
The maker mark. Looks almost hand forged. It’s not. Tetanus alert!
Stripping the remnants of the paint was a breeze. After that, I sanded the wood handles. The usual 80-100-150-220 grit progression. I’ll never get them like new, but I got them good enough. I stained and shellacked them off-camera. Meaning I forgot to take pictures..
Another milestone. Ready for paint! Time for a beer.
It’s time to paint. Well, first it’s time to tape. I went with three coats of primer, rubbing it down with #0000 steel wool between coats.
I did NOT paint these here. It was just a convenient spot to clamp them for drying.
While the primer was drying, I tackled the hardware. The brass washer polished up nice and quick. The nut and bolt needed more attention. I chucked the bolt into the drill press and filed the head enough to mostly even it out. The nut got filed and smoothed to deal with the tetanus peril. Then I dipped them in acetone, gave them a brief soak in hydrochloric acid and a water rinse to get them super clean. I’d thought about nickel plating them, but they’re still pretty rough. It’d be like polishing a dried-out turd. I used this gun blue solution instead. Paint it on, soak the piece in oil for a while, wipe it off, and you have a period-correct rust resistant finish. Easy.
Getting the hardware ready.
The original color was black, so I stayed with that. I went with a satin finish; I felt gloss would be too much. I gave it three coats, waited a day, then put on a few coats of clear satin polyurethane and waited another day before handling them. The longer you let paint dry, the better. I had no issues reassembling, but I was careful not to bang things into each other in the process.
BTW, I bought that car in the pic below in 1985. God, I was in my twenties then.. So I’ve had it through five jobs, four decades, three houses, two kids, and one wife. This summer’s mission is to get the A/C working again.
Watching the paint dry. This is thirsty work, where’s that beer?
Alright, here’s the hedge trimmer project, completed. I sharpened the blades but didn’t try to get them to a high polish. I got the steel clean and rust-free and I think leaving some signs of ageing was the right move. A note about the blades. Sold new, one blade was knife-edged and the other was serrated. On this tool, decades of use and resharpening have worn the serrations to the point where they’re effectively gone.
In retrospect, maybe a matte finish for the black and clear coat would fit better with the overall aesthetic. Maybe I’ll just take it outside and rub some sand on it..
Ready for action.
A few close-ups:
The maker mark, cleaned up nicely. Check how the bolt head is off center. The nut and brass washer on the other side. Before I said “Fuck this shit”, I was what they called a design and release engineer at a certain Michigan based automaker, responsible for critical chassis systems on vehicles that millions of people, including me, still drive every day. Now, I am about to analyze two hedge trimmer designs. I’m totally good with that. Let’s look at the differences between our “modern” trimmer and the old Wiss. On the left is our 80s trimmer. It’s cryptically labeled “Ames 23.002 (HS221)”. No other markings. An initial web search informs me it’s either a voltage tester or some kind of network specification. I may need to refine my search parameters. Anyway, it’s a modern style trimmer, good for making a design comparison with the 1930s Wiss.. On the right is the old Wiss, brought back to nearly its former glory. Here’s where I get channel my inner engineer. Let’s look at the differences.
I later took some #0000 steel wool to the shellack on the wood handle inlays to soften the shine.
The 1930s Wiss has twenty separate parts:
One RH and one LH arm casting
Two wood handle inserts
Four rivets to secure handle inserts
Six rivets to secure the cutting blades to the handles
One RH and one LH blade
One pivot bolt, one pivot nut, one lock washer, and one brass washer
The 1980s Ames has ten parts:
Two wood handles
One RH and one LH cutting blade, stamped steel
Two steel ferrules to protect the wood handles at the attachment points
Two rivet pins securing the ferrules and the handles to the blade stampings
One pivot bolt and one pivot nut
Obviously, reducing the part count by half makes for a huge reduction in material and manufacturing costs. But there’s more. It’s a lot cheaper to make a progressive die that will pound out those cutting blades like popcorn versus sand casting the handles on the Wiss, a much slower and more labor-intensive process.
Speaking of manufacturing processes, here’s my stab at it. The operations aren’t necessarily listed in order; many were done in parallel.
First, the Wiss:
The Wiss trimmer
Cast the RH handle
Cast the LH handle
Rough-grind casting flash from the RH handle
Rough-grind casting flash from the LH handle
Paint the handle castings black
Machine the RH handle pivot point and blade attachment surfaces
Machine the LH handle pivot point and blade attachment surfaces
Stamp the RH and LH blades. This can probably be done with a single die set.
Nickel plate the blades
Polish the plated blades
Machine/sharpen the RH blade
Add serrations to the RH blade
Machine/sharpen the LH blade
Rivet the RH blade to the RH handle
Rivet the LH blade to the LH handle
Shape the handle wood inserts. LH and RH are the same. Shaping will also entail several sub-operations.
Stain/shellack the handle wood inserts
Rivet the RH wood insert to the RH handle
Rivet the LH wood insert to the LH handle
Assemble the RH and LH subassemblies to complete the trimmers
That’s twenty operations. I’m simplifying a lot for my process estimates. You have to prepare molds for casting, install dies in presses, set up milling machines, move parts between operations, maintain the machinery, and much more. I’m leaving all that out for both the Wiss and the Ames, figuring both designs will require a proportionally similar number of background operations.
Now, the Ames:
The Ames trimmer.
Stamp the RH and LH blades. This can probably be done with a single die set.
Black oxide coat the blades
Machine/sharpen the RH blade
Machine/sharpen the LH blade
Shape the wood handles. LH and RH are the same. Shaping will also entail several sub-operations.
Varnish the wood handles
Stamp the RH and LH ferrules. Both are the same.
Paint the RH and LH ferrules red.
Assemble the RH blade, handle, and ferrule, and secure with a rivet pin
Assemble the LH blade, handle, and ferrule, and secure with a rivet pin
Assemble the RH and LH subassemblies to complete the trimmers
That’s eleven operations. Again, ~50% fewer compared to the Wiss. And, many of the steps are simpler and faster than the earlier model’s processes. Shit, couple this with a 50% reduction in part count, and I wouldn’t be shocked if this costs about a third to produce as the Wiss. That’s a big deal in engineer world.
The big question: Is the modern design any good? The short answer is yes. We’ve used that Ames trimmer since the 80s and as long as it’s kept sharp and the tension on the pivot bolt is adjusted right, it does the job well. It’ll easily lop off a finger-sized branch.
But still, it just doesn’t have the aura of craftsmanship that the old Wiss has. Pre-WW2, industrial design combined ornamentation and function. And they were robust. This one can probably amputate a big toe.
From the factory, I don’t think those rivets were painted.
I’m not going to use these; the ones we have are good for what we need them to do. So, like any tool hoarder, I found a place on the wall for them. When wall space runs out, I’ll have to get more creative.
Fits right in with the decor. Looks like there’s room for at least two more spokeshaves there if I re-space them..
That’s it for today, take care everyone!
ER
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