Rushed over to a yard sale in town right after work that didn't start til 4PM(a chance to get first right of refusal???) and may well have succeeded. All the tools were in 3 old wooden Pepsi crates.  You could buy each item for 10 cents in two of them and the other one was 20 cents each.  Being really cautious with the quarter and dimes that were rollling around in my lunch bag, I picked 5 items from the 20 cent stash and the rest from the dime boxes.  From memory, the expensive tools were a like new Arrow stapler(not pictured), an old Lufkin outside caliper, a 10 CR Vise Grip(US made), a Bleckmann bit brace(1800's???), and a no name bit brace with a wood top handle and the middle handle appears to be a brownish and slightly red speckled bakelite plastic.   Everything else in the photo was a dime.  Sent like $4 and the guy threw in one of the Pepsi boxes and I splurged and bought an old antique iron with a detachable handle.  Had 30 cents left over so I went back through everything and grabbed the Millers falls coping saw, the home grown pry bar, and the Millers Falls level(craked glass for the most part).  The Greenlee draw knife is in great shape too.

Semi-Clockwise, from the bottom we have:
Millers Falls aluminum level
"Franklin" mfg. co. prybar from Monticello Iowa
Millers Falls coping saw
Stanley mini hammer
Dimalloy groove joint pliers
Like new Utica 8-8 pliers
Bonalloy 2805 BDE
SK C-22 combo wrench
Indestro Super 722 combo
Blackhawk 4725 DOE
SK C-10 combo
Lufkin caliper(doesn't close quite all the way)
Lufkin White Clad100'  tape
Indestro 3588A 10" adjustable
Very nice Crescent 4" adjustable
old c clamp
No name bit brace
Bleckmann really old bit brace
GB wire stripper
US made 10R Vise Grips
6LN needle nose Vise Grips(with Harley davidson logo no less)
Greenlee drawknife
MW(monkey wards?) Master Quality( on the grips) pliers
Old side cutters(no name...Kleins?)
Red Devil 500 pliers of some sort
"Germany" wood handled chisel(pre WWII?)
2 Stanley chisels and the yellow/black no namer

would you sell the two pliere (ign.  stub nose dikes)   bob w.  pm me thanks 

Quote from: dimwittedmoose51 on July 29, 2012, 04:18:54 AM
6LN needle nose Vise Grips(with Harley davidson logo no less)

Really? Can you post a nice close-up?

Quote from: dimwittedmoose51 on July 29, 2012, 04:18:54 AM
Old side cutters(no name...Kleins?)

If they're Klein, they're marked; do they have the "Linesman" logo?

Nice score.
I love getting good tools cheap at yard sales.

You made out well.   I cruised around town at lunch and found only one garage sale sign, the kind with the directions in one inch letters with a dull pencil.  Alongside a busy street, so you can't even make them out.   I've never seen twenty cent tools at a garage sale!

At those prices, you are not far from them paying you to take them away...  Sweet deal !!

Brian L.

What was this?
Pre-divorce, the old man is visiting his mother so quick, take all this stuff before he gets back??
Or a "husband just died and I am too stupid to live" sale?
Who gets rid of tools this good, and this cheap? 

The "Penny Brace" is well before 1900 and if its marked, well they don't come around with a makers mark very often at all. This was a family heirloom for at least 3 generations before this sale.

  I'd have bought every single thing in the picture except the two red handles Stanley chisels, I think. The yellow and black is a Stanley 60 series and will be a solid favorite. Those are -very good- chisels, from the 60's at the latest. The red ones are pretty new and ehhhhhhhhhhh.

The Millers coping saw is as good a coping saw as industry ever made and in near perfect condition.
  The Stanley hammer is a professional upholsterers hammer.
  The Greenlee drawknife is as good a knife as ever made by anyone.
   The no name brace looks like a high quality Stanley, probably ordered by a hardware chain unmarked, with paper labels originally. But its a closed ratchet and that always says quality.
   I kind of have a thing for small prybars and marked as to maker is not common, especially a smaller maker.

  Who gives up Vicegrips and 100' leather covered tape measures?? Who does that?

Wow!!!
   yours Scott

Or sick of storing grandpa's tools because we don't know what to do with anything more complicated than a screwdriver...*

Major score :)
Heck, the brace alone at 10 times the price would still be major theft....


*The same kind of folks that scream murder when you tell them it will cost $30 to fix their doorbell button...

You're killin me with the prices!  Why would anyone want to get rid of such great tool, the drawknife is in perfect condition and that brace!!  wow!  Well I'm glad they had the sale for your sake, nice haul for sure.

Check the bit brace very carefully -- I have five that I have had for ovr 40 years and never did clean them up.

Well with a soft wire wheel set up on my grinder I made some great discoveries under the rust and debris.

2ea - Stanley No. 923s  10"  Actually  the large bit brace in your pic looks exactly like my Stanley 923s

2ea Victor 10" one of them from  the late 20s (I think based on who I got it from years ago. A second Victor from the late 30s (based on the top knob attach method.  Actually I had never heard of Victor Bit braces Just welding stuff. Oh Well live and learn

1ea Miller falls 10" prolly early 60s.

The Miller and 1 of the Stanleys  were readable, but the others  took a considerable clean up effort.

Maybe your MFGR is hidden under the crud like mine was  --- I was very happy to learn who made them.

Have a great day guys

I would have been happy with the 4" cresent.

Wow, I got a lot of replies to catch up on...guess thats what happens when you go to work for 12 hours on a Sunday....


The Bleckmann oldie Brace has the word "Bleckmann stamped right under the top wooden handle.  I did lightly buff it to be able to read the letters.

As to why the guy was selling the stuff, he said he was selling off his "thirds and fourths".  Unbelievable!!!.  Everything there was cheap, even bought a counter top Faberware Convection Turbo Oven in working condition for $5. I don't think my wife needs it, so maybe it can heat plastic and some project stuff I occasionally need "baked".   Only thing  I saw that was overpriced(maybe, but certainly compared to everything else) was an old Stanley miter box with one of those really long 26" saws on it.  The pivoting part on the bottom was metal.  Probably worth the $10 he was asking, but I was trying to control myself as it was.  Also had 2 50' extension cords for 50 cents each.

Here's some more closeups of the table, and I'll try to respond to all the requests soon....

Here's a shot of another local prybar that might actually have a little historical significance.  I don't know if any of you remember a year or two ago the big raid on the kosher meat processing plant in Postville Iowa, but this prybar is from what may be the predecessor of the Postville plant.  Need to research that a little further.  The phone number is "1000", so it wasn't made yesterday......yeah, the silver one is hard to read even with good eyes....lol

DM&FS

>All the tools were in 3 old wooden Pepsi crates.

I'm thinkin'  "Why bother to sort? "  Why not ask for a price for all three crates plus contents? One crate is worth more than you paid for all the tools...

But, the Red Devil pliers are probably some sort of glazier pliers.  Glazier tools were the mainstay of Red Devil products.  (I just stumbled across a pair of Red Devil off set glass pliers on eBay -- unnoticed and unloved, so I snagged them for $1.99)

The brace was a less expensive model in the 1800's, and in the 1700's was considered a Gent's Brace, something for the wood hobbyist of that time.
Is that a gimlet bit in the brace?  Nice little score.

>Probably worth the $10 he was asking...

Uh hunh!

I don't think I've ever seen a drawknife of that vintage in such good condition.  It looks like maybe 5 - 10 years old, which it most certainly isn't.

Now this is a haul!

Great old tools - in great shape - for 20 cents each. WOW!
That would've made my day.