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...
