They are marked on the shank with: Russell Jennings, Stanley, No. 100 RJ, 100 Plus. The bits are also marked with either Sheffield England or Made In Australia, along with the fraction size.
The set has 13 bits, size 4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16, in 1/16th inch increments. All the sixteenths add up to 32 1/2 quarter-inches, which is where the set number comes from.
They come in a neat, three-tiered flip-top box. The wooden box is in good shape, but worn. There is no label on the inside lid which, from photos of other sets we’ve seen, seems to be the norm.
Here are some more photos:
The Russell Jennings auger bit set also came with this Stanley 02-923 10″ Bit Brace Made in USA:
We assume that this particular set is from the early to mid 50’s. If you can shed some more light on these sets we would love to hear about it!
A bit of trivia that we were able to pick up states that it was a blacksmith that originally invented this design but lacked the capital that was necessary to go into production. Because he had a habit for strong drink, cocaine, laudenum (liquid morphine) and other tonics, he accumulated a rather large debt to the nearby pharmacy (boy, were times different then!). To pay off this debt he traded his patent with the pharmacist, a Mr. Russell Jennings. Mr. Jennings saw a future in this new design and started a company that went into production of this style of auger bit and the rest, as they say, is history. We expect that at some point in time his company was bought up by Stanley Tools.
Back to the shop…