Hamant Tool Company and Grainers

 

1958 Hamant Tool Co Advertisement
Image Source: Google Books

About

Graining is the art of making ordinary materials (often inexpensive woods) resemble higher quality species and cuts of wood. I covered an extraordinary collection of antique handheld graining tools as well as a little history behind the process in my article here: Tools of the Grainer - Specialized Craftsmen. I discovered a reference to a 'Hamant vertical grainer' in the advertisement of the Harmony Musical Instrument Company's liquidation auction and decided to see what I could find.

There is very little information on the company and I have yet to find a photo or reference to an extant example of their machinery. But this 1958 advertisement in Wood Working Digest is the best reference material to their model numbers and what their machines look like. The company was established in 1948 by Edward D, Edward W, and Lawrence C Hamant and was dissolved in 1998 after the State of Ohio started going through old businesses and checking if they were still operating [1]. Edward William Hamant holds patents US2176062, US2170817, and US2176765 assigned to the Oxford Varnish Company for inventions related to a "surface decorating machine"

Hamant machines used Gravure-offset printing to put the patterns on the substrate. They claimed they could do wood, marble, and fabric mimicry.

1958 Hamant Tool Co Advertisement
Image Source: Google Books

Sources

[1] https://businesssearch.ohiosos.gov?=businessDetails/206410