Lewis Bros. Black Diamond Axe
1910 – 1930s*
Lewis Bros. Hardware (Montreal, Quebec)
Maker Unconfirmed
The Lewis Bros. Black Diamond brand is almost always misidentified as the famous Walters Black Diamond, including by the legendary researcher Tom Lamond (yesteryearstools.com).
Lewis Bros., Limited was a Montreal-based hardware wholesaler started in 1876, that expanded quickly with offices in Toronto and Winnipeg. In 1910 Lewis Bros. introduced its “Black Diamond” tool brand (including axes) with the modest tagline of “The Best Quality Tools Made In The World“.
The pages below are scanned from a large 1919 Lewis Bros. catalog (#50) in my collection.
In the early 1900s, all the large Canadian hardware dealers were starting to introduce their own private-label tool lines, and axes were almost always one of the first offerings.
The Black Diamond axes were launched in 1910 as top-tier tools, made to compete with the large national brands and hardware competitors.
“Black Diamond Axes are hand hammered, hand tempered, and hand whetted. The bit is made of the highest grade crucible steel and tempered hard to hold a fine cutting edge. The eye is punched from solid steel and will not stretch nor break as axes having a rolled or welded eye.”
They also introduced the “Gold Coin” brand – more on that further down.
We don’t have exact dates for when the brand mark was stamped into heads, but they are relatively scarce. The only known printed image of one of these axes that includes the stamped logo is from the 1919 catalog above. like most other hardware brands, they likely stopped stamping heads by the 30s (if not sooner), but it could have been as late as the 40s.
The Black Diamond brand was being still used in the 50s, even after mergers with other hardware companies. But, it’s not likely axes were still being produced at this time. Most of the Canadian hardware industry no longer bothered as axe sales and profits plummeted after the introduction of the chainsaw.
Identifying the Lewis Bros. Black Diamond
The Lewis Bros. Black Diamond logo has the name “Black Diamond” in the middle of a diamond shape, with a modified version of the tagline “The Best Axe Made in the World” running above and below the name within the diamond. It doesn’t include the “Lewis Bros.” name – which is in part why it is never correctly identified.
It’s also unclear who produced the Black Diamond axes for Lewis Bros., but there is a note in Axe Makers of North America claiming they were made by Welland Vale in St. Catherines, who made a lot of other hardware store brands (Howland, Howden, WAJAX).
Other Black Diamond Axes
“Black” and/or “Diamond” were two of the most commonly used words for axe brands in North America – and as a result, there were multiple “Black Diamond” axe brands just within Canada alone.
The most common one you will see regularly is Walters. Walters Black Diamond axes simply have the name stamped on the head. The other, “Garret’s Black Diamond” is probably the rarest (I’ve only ever seen the one I have).
Lewis Bros. Gold Coin Axe
Lewis Bros. Hardware also had a second lower price point axe brand called “Golden Coin”. It’s unclear how long the brand existed, or how widely it was used.
All the marketing focus was on the Black Diamond brand, so this one doesn’t show up much in the books or trade journals. And these axes appear to have only had paper labels, meaning the chance of an example popping up is pretty low.
What happened to Lewis Bros?
The company was purchased by K. C. Irving sometime in the 1940s as he bought up multiple hardware businesses in eastern Canada. By the 1950s the Lewis Bros, Chinic Hardware, Thorne Hardware Limited, and F. Wragge Limited business had all been merged.
For a while, they operated under their original names but shared things like catalogs and products including the Black Diamond tool line.
However, like most Canadian Hardware businesses, the combined Irving-owned operation shrunk and consolidated under a single banner. Surprisingly, a successor business is actually still operating in Eastern Canada by the name of Source Atlantic.
Although they only trace their roots to Thorne, one of the other names in the merged business.
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Did I get something wrong? Do you know more than me? Please share any pictures, information, or insights to help fill the archive.
Email: museum@axeandtool.com
Sources
- Thomas Fischer Rare Book Library, University of Toronto
– Hardware & Metal Jan 8, 1910
– Hardware & Metal April 21, 1917 - Bruce County Museum Archives
- Lewis Bros. Black Diamond Catalog No. 50 (1919) – Author’s Collection
- Montreal Collector
- “Axe Makers of North America” by Allan Klenman (second edition – editor: Larry McPhail), 1990