This is a 1920 Ideal Reel and Bed Knife Grinder. It was purchased used by Raymond "Red" Sinagra. His business was Cardinal Hardware, located in Squirrel Hill, PA. The store was open only one year between 1961 and 1962, due to his untimely death, so the grinder’s usage was brief. It sat in storage for over 62 years.

Recently, his son decided to clean out the shop. Mike heard about it and we purchased it from him. He was very happy that it was going to a place that would take care of it. To us, it was like Jay Leno finding a Deusenberg in an old garage with only 10,000 miles on it. You don’t restore it, you make a few repairs and get it running. Jay calls that his favorite kind of old car, unrestored, original, as is condition.

This is the first grinder sold by the Root Brothers company. The rights were obtained from one of their employees and the concept was given to a very young Percy Root. He developed it into the first commercially viable reel grinder in 1902 and it was produced until 1910 with over 5,000 sold. It was replaced with the Ideal (no number, just Ideal) grinder above which was produced until the 1930s. In the 1920s, it was joined by the larger, commercial grade Peerless Reel Grinder which quickly became the favorite of golf courses.

An interesting design note is that the original Root Brothers grinder had the grinding wheel mounted on the spinning shaft. It had dual end infeeds and auto traverse. This was a very common design of OD (outside diameter) grinders at the time. Percy Root recognized the shortcomings of this design so when he designed his first grinder, he moved the grinding wheel off the spinning shaft on to its own bearing. This both eliminated chatter and increased precision. The grinder is sitting in our lobby now and, as time allows, we will clean it up and get it running again. I hope I am in is as good a shape when I am 100. Hell, I hope I am alive when I hit 100.