# Hand brace

> There is a second one in the library of things.

https://vitrine.themes.dev/collection/brace/

- Made by: Unknown maker, Sheffield
- Date: About 1920
- Material: Steel, beech
- Size: 36 cm long
- Cost new: Seven and six
- Came from: The works’ maintenance shop
- On view: The workshop, on the wall rack

Used by the works’ own joiner to hang doors, fit shelves and, according to the wage book, make a cradle in 1931. Hand braces outlived the electric drill by decades in places like this, because they never needed a socket.

We had two. One stays on the wall; the other goes out on loan most Saturdays and has hung shelves in kitchens all over Kelham.