Smith & Silk was founded in 1887 as a partnership between William D. Smith and P. P. Silk in Cincinnati, OH, and early on they built shapers for Lodge & Davis. In 1891 Smith & Silk moved to Kenton, OH, and reorganized as the Smith & Silk Machine Tool Co.. Silk left the company at some point, and in 1897 Smith reorganized as the Ohio Machine Tool Co. By 1902 Silk had established the P. P. Silk Machine Tool Co., a company, that, like Smith & Silk, kept an exceedingly low profile.

Information Sources

• 1891-01-31 The Age of Steel page 13.

  Smith & Silk, manufacturers of planers and shapers, Cincinnati, are now moving their shops to their elegant new plant at Kenton, O. The new building is 60x150 feet, part of it two stories, with separate building for engine and boiler house. It is being equipped with a number of new tools of the heaviest and most modern patterns. The Nypano are now building for them a switch to parallel the entire shop.

• 1891-04-18 The Age of Steel page 18.

  Smith & Silk, machine tools, late of Cincinnati, have completed their removal to Kenton, O., and are very happily settled down in the beautiful new shops. The building is 60x150, one story, but a very high story, with 12-foot windows along each side, assuring abundance of light. Building is covered with metal roof, and has a private railroad switch adjoining, for the convenient handling of heavy tools of their make (planers, shapers and radial drills). Many of the old tools from Cincinnati are utilized, and new ones added, with others yet to arrive. Natural gas for fuel. A handsome Chandler & Taylor engine, and a fine battery of boilers are housed in a neat building adjoining the machine shops. In connection with the change of location to Kenton a stock company was formed with $50,000 capital stock. P. P. Silk, president and manager; W. D. Smith, vice-president and superintendent; H. A. Wise of Kenton, secretary and treasurer. All three will give their entire time to the interests of the "Smith & Silk Machine Tool Company," Mr. Smith designing to "take the road" if they ever catch up on order, of which they are a little in doubt.

• 1891-10-29 The Iron Age page 748.

  The Smith-Silk Machine Tool Company, Kenton, Ohio, producing shapers and planers, although in their new shops only since last May, find it necessary to increase their present extensive facilities by the addition of more machinery, which is now on the way. The company will probably add one or two extra sizes to their present line of planers and hope to be in position to furnish the trade with them by January 1, 1892.

• 1893 Tenth Annual Report of the (Ohio) Department of Inspection, page 101, in a listing of factory inspections performed from mid-year 1892 to mid-year 1893. "The Smith & Silk Machine Tool Co. / [address] S. Kenton street / [items manufactured] Machine tools / [male employees] 35 / [female employees] 0 / [minor employees] 0 / [paid] Weekly / [Changes ordered] no deficiencies".
• 1896 book English and American Tool Builders, by Joseph Wickham Roe, has a passing mention of this firm.

  Another firm, Smith & Silk, also built shapers for Lodge & Davis. Later they added planers, and in the early nineties they moved to Kenton, Ohio, and began building shapers and planers for their own account.

• 1896-07-09 Industrial World and Iron Worker (Vol. XLVII No. 2), page 3, has an article on the "New Crank Shaper" from Ohio Machine Tool Co., Kenton, Ohio. The illustrated shaper bears a plaque which is just legible: "The Smith Silk Machine Tool Co. / Kenton Ohio".
• American Planer, Shaper and Slotter Builders: 1830-1910 by Kenneth L. Cope, 2002 page 171