I've mentioned that I have collected old tools. Others have alluded to old tool collections as well and we've caught of glimpse of some old tools in the plane tuning blog. But I have kind of gone inactive in the past three or four years. I can trace my inactivity back to when I seriously downsized my collection in order to pay for a week-long woodworking class.
I got started picking up a wooden plane, rosewood level or a set of socket chisels here and there in my teens as I attended farm acutions with my father in Northern Illinois. I was (and am) entralled with the quality, spirit, rhythm and skill of hand-crafting. I used to love watching Roy Underhill on PBS!
I feel blessed to be the caretaker of tools from both my maternal and paternal grandfathers - as well as some old tools I was given by a Cooper (Barrel Maker) in Kentucky. (See Traditional Tool Chest Project. Unfortunately I didn't get his coopering tools. He lamented that he had given them away to a museum shortly before he discovered my interest in old tools. He lamented because he never received the recognition of even a "thank you" from the museum.) I'll post pictures of my favorite old tools and any story that goes with it beginning tomorrow. I would love to see your old tools as well.
What's your favorite old tool? It doesn't have to be valuable from a collector $ stand-point. Value, to you, may be in its beauty - its form - its ingenuity - its legacy of ownership. That's certainly the case for the tools I will post. Tools that are beautiful. Tools I remember in my grandfather's hand. Etc.
Picking a favorite is too tough of a task. I like finding any good quality woodworking tool. I'm working on getting a comprehensive set of hand tools assembled. Hand drills, hammers, drills, planes, chisels, etc.
My current favorites are my modern Lie-Nielson planes.
It is a hard thing to do. Right now I am working on Craftsman woodworking tools, Craftsman Tool Company, Before Sears bought them in 1927. Some I have gotten from my grandfather's tool set.
These tools are really well made, very very innovative and I plan on using them in my shop.
The first installment of my favorite tools includes;
a 36" Stratton Brothers Rosewood & Brass Bound Level
a 12" Stanley Rosewood & Brass Bound Level
a couple of Rosewood and Brass Mortise Gauges
two different Stanley marking gaugues
and a unique Dunlop marking gauge
I picked up all the gauges off e-bay and flea market tables. I use them all regularly.
I just love the quality, beauty and heft of the two levels. I bought the 36" level over twenty-five years ago while I was in high school at a farm auction. The 12" Stanley at an auction as well a number of years ago.
These were some of the easiest to get to. The tools with a story and legacy are stored away a little more "out-of-the-way" in my shop.
Great photos. Thanks for sharing. I'm going to an antique sale tomorrow. Hopefully I will find something as nice. I'm on an old screwdriver kick at the moment.
1. A pair of neat bar clamps I found some time ago. I had not seen clamps like this before and haven't since. Neat and unique cam action clamping. They work great!
2. Two slicks marked with my grandfather's intitials - HG - my father married later in life and I never met my father's father. It's special to me to be the caretakers of these and other tools marked with his initials.
3. I used to have a collection of these rubber "unbreakable" tote planes made for the Norvell-Shapleigh Hardware company (St. Louis) for a very brief time circa 1917-19. Friends gave me this large size #8 example not knowing that I had sold my collection.
4. A neat wooden sash plane. This plane cuts the sashes for window panes. If I ever build a window from scratch, I'm ready.
5. A pair of tongue and groove planes given to me by a friend. Can you imagine being a carpenter's apprentice. standing all day pushing these planes and making tongue and groove flooring?
I can't seem to master embedding the pictures in the blog so I guess we'll stay with the link.
1. Four Wooden Molding Planes - The far left is a center bead plane and the remaining are three different sizes of side bead planes.
2. I'm not a purist, but I do like to do something by hand in every project. It may only be one mortise and tenon of several, but perhaps one. Here's a close up pciture of a side bead detail I put on the face frame of an ash china hutch with the plane third from the left in the previous picture.
3. Three examples of old multi-planes. Basically metal frames and fences with height adjustments, depth stops, etc. that hold interchangable miolding profile blades. These babies replaced a whole shelf-full or box full of wooden molding planes. In set-up, they're time-consuming and fussy for the occassional user like me, but I'm sure one could become proficient and speedy changing profiles.
4. The Stanley 45 - they also made a 55 which is even more complicated and could produce even more profiles with a wider assortment of attachments and blades.
5. Close-up of some Stanley 45 blades
6. The Craftsman 45 - The Craftsman copy of the Stanley 45
7. The Fulton 45 - The Fulton copy of the Stanley 45
8. Not old, but what we use now to make a bead. The router bit sitting on the corner of my unfinished Thorsen Table.
I mentioned in the comments section of my shop tour that I use just a handful of my plane collection. These old Millers Falls planes are excellent workers:
I keep the low angle block plane handy and use it often to shave just a little bit where I need it.
The 9" Smooth plane is the next most often used.
The 10" Smooth Plane (like a Stanley 4 1/2") and the 14" Jack less often.
This large panel gauge or board gauge with a brass thumb screw was one of my first old tool acquisitions.
Sorry for not posting more. I have several projects stacked up in my shop and I have much of what I haven't shown (little used favorites) stored out of the way in corners and back spaces. I would have to intentionally move projects out into the drive and dig into the deeper recesses of "my space," take pics and move it all back. I tend to bang and scratch things when I move them too much, so it will be a while yet. I love viewing Wayne's finds and would still love to see more of your favorites.
All maternal grandfather's, except the rosewood square which belonged to paternal grandfather
A suggestion - if you inherit old tools and also enjoy picking up old tools at flea markets, etc. - either keep your family tools strictly separated or mark them with a sticker or make and keep an inventory list. You think you will remember which ones are "family," but as you age . . . I'm very happy I wrote out an inventory list when these came into my possession. I needed it to separate g-fathers' tools for this post!
Left to Right: Stanely 110 Block, Dunlop Block, Fulton Double End Block & Two Stanley 60 1/2s
Nice set of tools. Hope you include them in the rotation of tools you use.
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