What is your story?

[skylab]

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.

[junkfisher]

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

[fflintstone]

I dont collect tools.
I do however have several spares of some things.

[bgarrett]

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.

[pritch]

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.   

[johnsironsanctuary]

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.

[mrchuck]

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.