It’s been a while since I have done any sort of real restorations aside from cleaning up the occasional tools and I just happened to get this tool box on eBay a week or so ago and figured why not. It’s been long enough and the shop is coming along nicely now that I have the motivation to get out there and work on things ( presently tool organization as I’ve purchased a lot of nice new upgrades ).
So yeah, a Stanley Defiance 891 Tool Chest. Now this thing is odd to start with, because to start with, it seems to be a rebranding of an earlier tool box, the Stanley “Fix-Up Set” which was marketed towards the home owner and as one source mentioned, possibly teenagers. It’s hard to find much about this particular chest and I am still struggling to find a catalog entry that details what exactly came in the chest.
As for the number 891, this is speculative, but based on how Stanley was number things at the time this chest was produced ( circa 1950’s and I’ll share more on that shortly ), the Fix-Up Set is number H891 and it would only stand to reason that they would use the number on this as well. The “H” in front of the number would normally indicate a Handyman tool but I don’t see any mention of this being a Handyman chest. Regardless, the Handyman and Defiance lines do share the numbering convention and in almost all cases the only difference in model number is the “H” preceding the number so for the No. 3’s they would be 1203 and H1203. It’s been my experience that other tools in each line share that as well.
With the identity of this somewhat established, and we’re gonna run with it until research proves otherwise, we can look at other examples of this style chest. If you look at these pictures you can see where the Fix-Up Tool Set shares items with the Handyman line and this is where it picks up the “H”.
UPDATE 06/20/23 – I think I’ve seen enough of these now to confirm that what I thought about the numbering was correct, this is in fact the 891 and even with the Fix-Up Set this tool box has been cleverly hidden under the Handyman “H” designation. Even the stickers on later models say “HANDYMAN” in big bold letters. So we’re going to call this one treasure hunt concluded and work on getting it cleaned up and refilled as soon as I can find the tools that are supposed to be in it.
And now onto my chest:
Several tools came with my purchase and I am not sure that they all belong in the chest but they do all appear to be from the Defiance line, especially the hand plane. The level definitely because it’s labeled. Now something VERY cool about this chest I bought… it has only had one owner before me and it was a gift to young boy in 1956, here’s a picture of the tree and if you look at the bottom right you can just see the saw attached to the lid.
I’ve been talking with the original owner and he’s looking to see if he has any more pics of the tool chest. I think it’s really cool to be able to talk with the original owner and get pics of him receiving this for Christmas.
Not even gonna lie, this isn’t going to be a one day restoration and I still need to create the stickers or decals for this box so check back here for updates coming in the very near future.