So I found an interesting trap today. It is a short spring, No.1 sized trap, with a Diamond pan, marked No. 21 long spring. Now I am very much in the early learning stages of trap collecting, but I want to take a guess at this and see what you pros opinions are.
If memory serves, Diamond was bought by Victor back in the day. And I also believe that Victor made the No. 1 with a short spring during WW2 to save on steel. I have a bunch of shorty No.1 Victors hanging in the shed. So what Im guessing is that, during war time production, this trap was assembled as a No.1 short spring, and the old left over pan was used in place of a Victor marked pan in order to save on steel. Does this sound like a decent guess, or is my info messed up?
Also, would this trap have any value? Not that it matters as I usually don't part with my dusty discoveries, just curious. Pan is mostly legible if you squint your eyes just right and the sun is out, its a bit rusty. Its worth the five bucks I paid for it just to get my mind wondering for a bit. Any info, be it solid proof or an educated guess would be much appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Diamond traps were made from 1923 to 1931 by Norwich Wire Works.

The # 21 was a double jaw trap. The pan is probably stamped "frame in jaw".

Your theory could be correct, but the time frame seems a bit off. Since diamond traps were last made in 1931 and WWII didn't happen until 10 plus years later, I would think that the inventory of # 21 Diamond pans would have been used up before the short spring traps were made.

Is the pan marked Norwich Wire Works or Animal Trap Company?

As far as collector value. Probably $10.00 to $12.00 max. It is a very common trap?

Or some old trapper put a Diamond pan on a short spring Vic #1.

I think the pan is marked Animal trap company. Was showing it to some friends last night and managed to forget it there so I will have to check back with you. I had considered that it could be a parts trap put together by a trapper years ago, but I have other parts traps and if that is the case with this trap, the trapper did a good job of putting the pan on and not deforming or marking anything on the pan. Thanks to both of you for your input.

If the pan says Animal Trap Company and Diamond brand with a diamond cut out of the pan, that trap will be more valuable than a Norwich wire works pan. In my opinion.

Thank you wissmiss.

I have accumulated a large tub of Diamond 21s over the years and have not really looked at them until this post came up. I took some time this morning to go through them and there were a number of variations in pan markings, rather interesting but a common trap although getting some years now. The one that Big Sam started the thread about is certainly not factory. Likely the original spring got soft and a trapper replaced the original spring with a spring from a Victor #1 longspring. If it has a chain, the original chain setup would not have fit on the short wide Victor spring so the chain is likely not original either.