Tool Talk
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: clovis on November 04, 2012, 07:49:01 PM
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I am curious...
How and when did you start collecting tools?
What is your story?
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I'll ump in first I guess. I don't really remember when I started collecting older tools, but it's been within the last 5 years. don't remember what started it except for increasing the the frequency of attending local and regional yard sales and that dreaded(according to my wife) auction I attended on Hawthorne st., the household hasn't been the same... Once Ia discovered there were Hinsdale tools, my wife got interested as she's from Hinsdale and that's buffered some of the "time away from home" I spend chasing this stuff. The yard sales are pretty much over with up here now, so it may be auctions and ebay shopping for a while, but AI did notice a new pawn shop in town that moved in where a natural foods grocery store went out of business. May have to introduce myself.
The other motivation for collecting the tools is the Chinese stuff invding our shores andhopefully to educate the next generation about what quality really looks like. I was using some small Chinese drill bits the other day(ones I mistakedly bought at an estate sale thinking they were US ones). One bit was getting warm in some hardwood I was drilling so I slowly removed it to clear the flutes and as it came out, it didn't break, it bent. I thought malleable went out of style back in the 30's or 40's......and another one from the set did the same thing the next day.....
I collect Plomb, Proto, SK, Hinsdale, BluePoint SO and MAC (if they're really cheap), Bonney, Herbrand, and most anything I don't have one of.
DM&FS
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My first alligator wrench was in the form of an adjustable wrench I acquired in the tool kit of an old Volvo car I bought in 1969 for $25 and an old twin-lens reflex camera . I bought the car from a guy leaving for Canada to avoid the draft . I never heard from him again . The wrench is still in my toolbox and I use it regularly . It was some years later that I found out about Bahco .
After helping my sons buy and build computers, I got online with AOL and searched for info on that BAHCO wrench. That led me to monkey wrenches, and before long I had 20 or so of them! I kept trying to find people on the web to discuss wrenches, but all I found were saw and plane folks. I didn't find the old wrench guys that were there, so I started Tool Talk to discuss wrenches, and here we are.
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Grew up on a farm, my dad being older had old tools, that are a lot older now. Always kept my eye out for anything old, never afraid to ask self first: What can I use this for. In the sheds here on the farm were always some things we did not use, and we attended plenty of auctions where more of the olds came here to roost. I dug up(really), a Hinsdale speeder handle with socket, in an old barn, which made me get out some of the other socket wrenches that got put back. Cleaned those up, started looking hard at names. Found some of the wrenches had names, and not just (Drop Forged). Then the Smithsonian magazine had a little article on old tools, heard about the MWTCA, and its been down hill. Crescent style wrenches were always in use around here, but kind of liked the monkey wrenches. So on ebay I bought a couple in sizes I did not have. Now the slope is greased, polished, and greased some more, storage room is getting short. Tool boxes, tools, the associated equipment like grinders and drill presses, eat up lot of space. Then I find this place and all hope is lost!
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I got a Craftsman tool set for Christmas 54 years ago, used tools all my life to make a living.
They're like potato chips once you start ,can't get away from them.
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When I was a Kid, I always liked to fix things, take apart, figure how it worked, put together again.
My Mom bought me first Craftsman 4 draw tool box full of tools for 15th birthday.
I was hooked!! been collecting & using tools since.. 40 years..
Now I'm retired 6 years, have time to sort through the Old tools & research history & value.
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I moved 5 years ago quite a distance and started going to auctions to fill gaps in my user tools. Every box seemed to have 3 tools I could use and a bunch I didn't need. Usually there was one or 2 that I didn't know what was. That got me looking on the net and found this place. That started me buying boxes that had old interesting tools. Got to know a lot of the auction regulars so its a good place to socialize. Doesn't seem right to go to an auction and not buy something. Now that it is a full fledged addiction I am out of room and have to sell some to have room for more. I'll get on that right after the next auction. Actually I have sold/traded/gave away a few but not as fast as I buy. Guess I need to focus on some area of collecting but its all interesting.
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I grew up in Southington Connecticut and have always had an interest in local history. I started collecting items from Southington and it's villages of Plantsville, Milldale & Marion.
Some of those pieces included tools from PEXTO and HD Smith. Over the years I gathered more and more tools from local companies including Tobrin & SOHACO.
Since finding Tool Talk my interest in old tools has expanded to include all types of older USA made wrenches, screwdrivers and other tools.
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I've always liked older things -- old houses, old cars. About 1971, I found a copy of Eric Sloane's A Museum of Early American Tools. I was fascinated by everything I saw and read in that book. So I started looking seriously at garage sales and junk shops. In 1981 I started volunteering as a docent at Sutter's Fort, in the carpenters shop, using the tools I had begun to accumulate. In 1983, I co-authored the rehabilitation proposal for the carpenter shop, and did a lot more research on wood working tools, which had to be documented as pre-1845 patterns. We filled the shop with tools and work benches (we made the benches using 3 inch by 30 inch wide black oak slabs). The blacksmith there, a 3rd generation traditional smith, became a good friend, and I began collecting smithing tools, too.
1985, I spent a year working with Viet-Namese carpenters, who made their own tools, and some Hmong blacksmiths as well. I learned a lot from these guys.
In '86 I partnered up with a couple of others who were making wood sash and doors, mostly using turn of the century stationary machines. They brought me kicking and screaming into the early 20th Century, and we did some auctions -- we actually bought the contents of the entire mezzanine floor of the Thomson-Diggs building with all its tools and bins. We bought full tool chests. I bought my first Stanley planes...
Mostly, I've picked up tools I could use, though I'm happy enough if they are collectable.
Then I found Tool Talk, and wrenches...
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I bought my first car in 1966 while living in Napa California. It was a 1955 English Ford Anglia For $6.00 from a friend of mines sister. I had no tools to work on it, so i got a bunch of books of S&H Green Stamps, jumped on the Greyhound bus and headed south for about 15 miles to Vallejo where they had a store. Got a Stevens Walden 1/4 inch x 3/8 socket set. A few of my friends fathers gave me a few wrenches. In 1970 i went to work in a bakery. My bosses brother was a milkman who delivered milk, butter and cream to the bakery. I noticed he always had some boxes of tools in the back of the truck. I asked him where he got the tools, and his reply was garage sales. I wound up buying a Plomb torque wrench, a S&K Wayne 1/2 inch drive socket set and a Yale & Towne chain hoist. I still have a few of the sockets and the chain hoist.
EvilDr235
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I wanted to learn to read for 2 reasons.
Mad magazine and Popular Mechanics. I was dying to know what both were saying!!
I was a poor kid. I grew up in a house full of women. Many things fell to me very early on.
I found out about yard sales and such early.
They had tools. They didn't cost much money. I needed tools.
Many of the tools needed work one way or another.
And there it is.
Nothing much has changed since then.
I'm a light year older and come down a real long road to get here.
yours Scott
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Can't say for sure when I started collecting but it goes back into the1970's. The why I collect is easy, I just love old stuff and so does my wife. Mainly tools for me and pottery, dishes and the like for my lady. I go thru stages where one type of item seems to be more attractive to me and I'll sort of concentrate on that for sometimes up to a couple of years.But if I see a tool which I have never seen before and if I have the money, it's mine. I worked in the Construction industry up here in British Columbia and travelled a lot over the years and I picked up a lot of stuff which some is still piled in boxes etc in my shop and storage buildings.I've got everything from old tobacco cans,car and buggy jacks, planes, bit braces,promotional wooden yardstick rulers, wrenches to bear traps and model A parts. Some day, I keep telling myself, I'll get it all sorted out. But the hunt ( for me ) is as important as the purchase and a real good day to me is a day at yard sales,auction pawn shops etc. Someday we really need to have a yard sale and get rid of some stuff. But DAMN IT I just can't bring myself to do it.
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Ive only been doin it for the past 4 or so years. It all started out with a messege on my youtube account from fliffy42 about my grandpas snap on 71N ratchet. He told be about the site papaws wrench(before the crash) an then i signed up there. Ive been hooked on tools ever since. I just love the history and craftsmanship of these great old tools. And when it comes to brand I collect anything american made.
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I didn't realize I was a tool collector until I found this forum. My dad always had a shop full of tools, and his theory was, if you had the tools, you could do or fix almost anything. Tools was our way of getting by and surviving . Because I never throw anything away, I have automatically assembled a tool collection. After reading about the tools you guys have, I started comparing some of yours with mine and Now I Are One.
Mel
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When I got out of the service my second job was working for a pontiac dealer , I needed tools so i bought a barn roof top hand box full of craftsman then graduated to a four drawer roller cabinet and set the little box on top and filled both, then a cabinet, etc etc etc till i have three section three times and the original is still being used, the old non craftsman tools gradually got thrown into a 50 gallon drum in the corner of the garage. when two were filled Idecided to check them out and etc etc etc bob w.
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About 5 years ago I was at a flea market and seen some very large RR wrenches and bought them. After that loved the look and history of them. All of my family is some type of collector of antiques and I live on a farm and was always interested in antique/steam tractors. Now my basement is full of wrenches. Keep them in Rubbermaid containers but very heavy.
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I was raised in a junkyard, if I wanted something I had to fix it. From bicycles to minibikes,karts, cars,trucks, and equipment. Nothing like having the tool for the job. All my life Dad would teardown some building, barn or whatnot and we would haul everything home. Dad was also caretaker of the township dump when I was 12 and I helped folks unload trash for a quarter. If it was metal it went into the truck, when we got home we would put the "goodies" in a bus, van, or station wagon. most of it hasn't seen the light of day in 30 years or more. My most relied on tool is my front end loader, next would be whatever it took to keep it running. Never paid much attention to tool brands until I popped in here. In a nutshell, we collected everything but we actually used the tools. Jerry
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I dont collect tools.
I do however have several spares of some things.
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By the time I was 7 years old, I was using my fathers wrenches on my bicycles, then lawnmowers and by age 11, cars. I always thought a shiny chrome matching set of wrenches was the ultimate but never bought a set. After all I had most everything I needed and when I needed one more wrench, I bought one. I found wrenches in the road, in old cars and was given some. Grandpa, born in 1899 had S shaped wrenches and I knew they were OLD. When I left home at 19, my father gave me some wrenches including a short set of Buffalo Barcalo deep offset boxends. In this set was a 11/16, 3/4 that I bent at age 11 trying to get the head nuts off of Grandpas 1937 Ford truck. Not long ago, I broke that wrench and started looking on the internet for a replacement. Didnt take long to find Alloy Artifacts. I found out that all of my wrenches which I have using to work on my 1930s, 40s and 50s cars are actually wrenches made in the 1930s 40s and 50s!
I still think a shiny chrome set would be nice but I really appreciate my eclectic set that has more meaning than any new set.
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Like what's been posted, I got my love of old tools from my dad, of course, they weren't 'old' to him-he bought them new :) I played with them when I was very young and worked with them as I got older. He was a plumber, my dad, so most of what I got from him is building-trades related. And now, I just appreciate the vintage stuff more than the new. I would sooner rebuild something than to buy a new one. I can't seem to find 3 Chinamen out of a billion to care whether my new wrench breaks on the first bolt or the third.
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My first toolbox was a 3 drawer Park that I bought for a high school summer job at a construction machinery dealer. I fixed rental equipment when it came back in. Most tools came from the local hardware store. Craftsman came later. After I married Sue in '69 and bought a farmlet with a log house, we went to farm auctions to find primitive furniture for the house. Sometimes we found tools. My big move in old tools came when an old scrapper died and his wife had an auction. I bought enough old tools to require several trips to haul them in my minivan. I sold a bunch on ebay and I've done that ever since. Tooltalk has changed me from an old tool piler upper to a collector. After wrenchmensch showed us some of his pegboard displays, I put up several boards and filled them. The monkey wrench jones has been explained in earlier posts.
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Like the above. learned to fix things. Then fixed my bike, car, anything mechanical.
re-built car motors in high school.
received my BSME at Texas A&M.
Built and raced a sport car. Built and raced a 4wd hill climber.
Always had a roll-away full of my tools.
Stored during my military years.
Built and sold 4 custom houses to keep up with the inflation in the 70's and 80's.
Always maintained all our vehicles, trucks, cars, snowmobiles, chain saws, motorcycles.
My skin these days show it.
Can't physically do what I did physically, so I'm more and more becoming a tool polisher.
Holding a tool, well,, memories begin to flow,,,and that's nice.