Goodell

The Goodell Manufacturing Company was formed in 1902, was owned in part by the Goodell-Pratt Company, and was located in Greenfield, MA. It produced the “All Steel” and “Greenfield” brands of miter boxes among other things. Miter boxes made by Goodell often turn up missing any obvious identifying markings. This is apparently the result of the company’s use of glued-on paper labels to identify its products. Presumably this was a low cost alternative to metallic tags that were riveted in place. Metallic tags are present on relatively newer specimens that are thought to have been produced after the company was bought out by Millers Falls.)

Millers Falls continued to sell these brands of miter boxes under the Goodell name for many years after its 1932 acquisition of the Goodell companies.

All Steel

Strictly speaking the early versions of these miter boxes are not Langdons as they were made by Goodell, not Millers Falls. They are nevertheless excellent miter boxes many of whose features with respect to the design of the swing arm were later incorporated into the Langdon product line. The distinguishing traits of the Goodell All Steel miter box are the “truss” frames composed of numerous small pieces riveted together, two-piece bed/backstop, flat bar feet, and the style of stock holding guides (V-blocks on the extreme right- and left- ends of the box). After WWII, the physical differences between the All Steel and Langdon product lines diminish substantially such that by the 1950’s and 1960’s there truly is little apparent difference between them.

Greenfield

The “Greenfield” style of miter box has very distinctive two-part saw guides that ride in vertical T slots. It is a unique design among miter boxes that the known advertising does a poor job of portraying clearly. (See “Iron Mitre Box” image, below.) You’ll need to keep a screwdriver handy when making any kind of adjustments to one (e.g. setting depth of cut for dadoes) since there are no knobs or stock holding guides to play with. That said, they are nevertheless solid and dependable workhorses and, when you consider that a great many owners of costlier, fancier miter boxes lost or discarded the knobs and stock holding/length guides, there is something to be said for simplicity.

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