Use your antiques!

[Papaw]

I have sold the company more than 35 prints for the halls and offices and have hung them all. I also get the fun of hanging bulletin boards, posters, towel dispensers, etc., along with handyman stuff like fixing toilets and such!

By the way, I will use an antique tool on every job if possible. Egg-beater drill, "S" wrench, Perfect Handle screwdrivers, etc.
For example, if I have time, I am supposed to mount two rear-view mirrors on a forklift tonight. I will use a big egg-beater rather than corded or battery drill, just because I can!

[J.A.F.E.]

I like to use them all. New and old. I really like getting the feel of the older ones and often think about who owned it before me and what they worked on with it.

I read the Smithsonian restores their artifacts with tools correct for the era of the artifact. Partly to get the correct finish and partly to keep alive the skills used in making it.

[64longstep/Brian]

Every time I get the chance, I use my vintage and antique tools. It is a good feeling to use a well made tool that has been around the block more times than I have. It boggles my mined every time I ponder the thought of what has this tool built and who has used it before me... 

[amertrac]

what it is is that you old farts are reverting  , welcome to the club   bob w.

[Papaw]

The joy is that I drilled the two holes, tapped them, and mounted the mirrors in less time than it would have taken to find an electric drill and extension cord, or a cordless and a charged battery. Besides, drilling in steel, a slower drill with the correct bit and proper pressure makes it smooth and fun.

[64longstep/Brian]

what it is is that you old farts are reverting  , welcome to the club   bob w.

LOL....

[Branson]

Quite a few years ago Guns and Ammo magazine did a vintage gun article on the 1873 Winchester.  They took Winchester's claims from the time of the  introduction of the rifle and compared its performance to the Winchester advertisements of the late 1800s.  It passed the test.  It did everything Winchester said it would.  A repro 1873 is my deer rifle, and it does the job as handily as they did in 1873.

My wood Sheffield brace still drills holes, quietly and efficiently, wherever I want them.  I don't have to set the depth on the drill press, and I don't have to put on a drill stop -- just count the number of turns of the brace and all the holes are of equal depth.

As Scott is fond of mentioning, a sharp handsaw is generally unknown to people.  But a *sharp* handsaw is quick, unlike a fresh off the shelf saw these days.

Old tools are immediate, and quiet.  But maybe most of all, I just like to use them, especially if they're the best tools for the job.

[bird]

It has been and remains my philosophy or promise to myself, that I will learn how to do everything with a hand tool.... no power. After that, I'll admit, I do use power tools, they have their place if you're making a living off of woodworking. But, I'm amazed at how many people find some power tool, change the blade, realize it's not "calibrated" correctly and screw up the job because of that!
    The other day, when I was making a small wooden box, I cursed until I could curse no more because I could NOT get all of the miters to fit snug  (using my miter saw).  Finally I said F**** this, grabbed my grandfathers miter box (three old pieces of wood nailed together) and everything fit the first time around---- why did I waste so much time!!!
   I have an eight inch joiner with a 76 inch bed on it... I love it. I have a thirteen inch planer.... love it, too.  (persons don't seem to realize that a planer is useless without a joiner)... if you're going the power tool route.  But, there are plenty of times that you need to start with a hand plane in order to GET to where you can use the other power tools. It's also true that too many persons buy power tools without understanding the basics of the way a tool should work.
     My classic example is persons that own a planer. They feed a bowed board through the planer and wonder why it doesn't "come out flat" when it peers through the out feed end of the planer.  I've tried a thousand times to explain to persons that a planer is useless without one flat side.
  Inevitably, "How am supposed to that?"
"Buy a hand plane. Preferably not a new one."
     One tool that I have learned to love is a "corner brace" that I have... who needs a 90 degree drill????
cheers,
bird

[scottg]

When I was learning woodworking, I lived 18 miles downriver from town, and 16 miles from the nearest electricity.  Unless I could do something with a chain saw, there was no "cheating" for me.
It was hand tools or do without. 
  I didn't know anyone nearby who made much of anything from wood except log cabins and such, so I had to figure it all out for myself. 
 
I do use power tools now.  But my hand tools are right there and are the first consideration.
If I need to do it once, hand.
  If I need to do it 30 times, power.
Its faster for single parts to use hand tools, but slower for multiples, by hand.
   
I have never owned a working joiner btw.
  I do have one.  But it needs to be totally restored.   Its a miniature Delta from the 1940's.  Only 4" wide, but it is exactly like a big one in all other ways.  Sooo cute!! Toy joiner!

  But meanwhile, my Bedrock 608 comes off the shelf 10 times a week, at least.
   yours Scott   
   

[bird]

When I was learning woodworking, I lived 18 miles downriver from town, and 16 miles from the nearest electricity.  Unless I could do something with a chain saw, there was no "cheating" for me.
It was hand tools or do without. 
  I didn't know anyone nearby who made much of anything from wood except log cabins and such, so I had to figure it all out for myself. 
 
I do use power tools now.  But my hand tools are right there and are the first consideration.
If I need to do it once, hand.
  If I need to do it 30 times, power.
Its faster for single parts to use hand tools, but slower for multiples, by hand.
   
I have never owned a working joiner btw.
  I do have one.  But it needs to be totally restored.   Its a miniature Delta from the 1940's.  Only 4" wide, but it is exactly like a big one in all other ways.  Sooo cute!! Toy joiner!

  But meanwhile, my Bedrock 608 comes off the shelf 10 times a week, at least.
   yours Scott   

Yeah, I had a feeling you had some "cute tool" in your back pocket!!!!!  Just kidding, I don't know why I said that... just sounded funny!  I had a different woodworking background from you............ COMPLETELY different accept for one thing: I didn't know a single person on earth who was a "woodworker." I had to figure it out for myself. So, sounds like we had a weird similar experience.   You knew persons who built log cabins.
     I imagine at about the age that you were, I was stuck in Houston, Texas.  Which, take it from me, Texas is not the best place to be. Actually, I take that back!!!!!!  I'm sure Texas is a great place, but, not in downtown Houston if you have the sudden completely unexplainable urge to be a woodworker. I learned how to work with wood via "Fine Woodworker."  (I still can't figure out how to underline a title.... so, I'll settle for pretending I'm citing an article."
       I practiced cutting dovetails, and read more and more.... I practiced some more.... and, I became a semi-decent woodworker.  It wasn't what I hoped for--- I had hoped to be a GREAT woodworker.  ... hasn't happened. But, I'll keep working on it..... and, power tools do not tend to "further my education." 
      But, it's true, if I have to repeatably do anything, power tools become useful. But, if there is something you need to do just once, use the hand tools. Anyone that's ever used a hand tool knows that the gratification of holding a tool in your hand that may have been around for a hundred years.  100 YEARS!!!!!  ...Just imagine the hands, colonies, countries, ships, and different sociology spectrum's that tool could have gone through. 
     My friends and family genuinely ask me, "Why have you become obsessed with old tools?"
"Well, it's the same reason I've always been obsessed with history, accept that now history is tangible."
I guess that's the best way I can explain it---  history is now tangible.  Who would have thought I could avoid being an archeologist, and have hundreds of "artifacts" in my office?
     Well, that's all for now, folks
cheers,
bird.

[Branson]

Scott wrote:

>If I need to do it once, hand.   If I need to do it 30 times, power.

Exactly.  I reproduce moldings from time to time.  Somebody needs an apron for their Victorian window.  Used to be, to have it run at a mill, $85 for set up, and $75 for grinding the knives (and they didn't check to see if they had any knives already ground).   For a few feet, it's done by hand with old tools, about half an hour. 

One-offs are cheaper.  For a hundred linear feet, go to the mill.

[Stoney]

I was at a tractor show in '90 or '91 with my Gipson tractor.  A fellow looked at my tractor and asked why I didn't wash my tractor before coming to the show.  I asked him to look at my cultivators.  He asked why are these weeds back here.  I replied that I plowed my garden before coming to the show.  He was shocked.  His response was that the tractor was an antique and I needed to only use it in tractor shows and buy a modern tractor to plow with.  My response was that the tractor was made in '46 and I was made in '44.  I'm not an antique and my tractor is not either and everything that stays at our house works. 

I had just gotten a 355 Mossberg ratchet and pressed steel socket set from Papaw.  For some reason I had unloaded my tools from my truck and this was the only tools I had.  We were out on a landscape job, when our tiller belt started slipping, while we were racing incoming rain.  I pulled out the Mossberg set, fixed the tiller and beat the rain.

I love the feel of old tools and when they are treated with respect are wonderful to use especially if they belonged to, or were made by a relative or someone you knew.  Of course you respect the tool and don't do dumb things like use cheater bars, etc.

[Branson]

>I pulled out the Mossberg set, fixed the tiller and beat the rain.
>I love the feel of old tools and when they are treated with respect are wonderful to use ...

That's me all over.  My Plomb breaker bar with its Herbrand 3/4 socket has a permanent
home in my van.  I use it every time I change a flat or rotate the wheels. 

I'm a tool user, and don't lose an opportunity to let my guys do a job.  With respect, always.

[bigdaddie47]

I use my OLD tools, Some were my Dad's, Mother's and Grandmothers's- others found. It does save me from having to buy throwaways--cannot afford good overpriced tools but if necessary will borrow and lend among friends.

[johnsironsanctuary]

To paraphrase the old engine guys.

Tools were not invented to do work, work was invented so that you could use tools'