Tool Talk
General Category => General Discussion => Heads Up => Topic started by: mvwcnews on November 07, 2013, 01:15:15 PM
-
Focus is on IHC; other wrenches, etc. At Baxter Auction Gallery, Indianapolis with preview on Nov. 22nd and sale Nov. 23rd ( http://www.baxterauction.com/2013/November23/tools.asp ). Lots of pictures on the auctioneer's web site.
-
Some very nice tools there, that's the first buffalo wrench I've seen with swastika's on it.
-
Probably a Buffum if it has a swastika. Lot of nice wrenchs but a little too much paint for my taste.
-
I see a lot of tools I would like to have, thats for sure.
There a Wizard ratchet, with stripes, in the pile. A 6" Trimo perfect handle monkey wrench, in nearly new condition. Some pliers I have never seen. Lots of stuff.
I figure the painted tools were all crusty nasty fugly when he met them, and he was just doing the best he could.
People always want to think someone refinished a perfect mint 18th century Philadelphia Chippendale highboy, and now the value is ruined.
But the truth is, nobody strips down a perfectly good piece. Why would they?
Beat, damaged, broken ugly things don't have much value, whatever anyone tells you. I suspect his painted tools will still fetch more in the market than they would have, at the bottom of a rusty bucket of pit filled schmutz.
yours Scott
-
The painted wrenches reflect how quickly tastes change. When dad & the others started the MVWC in 1981 many were painting implement wrenches in "company colors." Paint kept the wrenches from rusting & easier to keep clean. It was only later that people got suspicious and now collectors are stripping the paint & using "treatment" to get a "patina" look. Dad used clear spray laquer on his implement wrenches to stave off rust & now that laquer has turned a jaundiced looking flaky yellow (I see wrenches that were from dad's collection now & then as subsequent owner's collections come to auction.)
I wonder how metal coated with "Renaissance Wax" will look in 30 years.
-
Weren't implement wrenches mostly dip painted when they were new? Mostly satin black, but didn't IHC paint everything red?