hello all, I recently made a trip back to ohio where my family is from. I got to see my Grandfather, who in my opinion, is the coolest man around. He’s worked on just about every prop and jet enjine in the skies. He used to wire homes on the side. Any way the point of the thread is this….History. How many of you have come from families that have been building for generations? Whats your story? Can you drive by a home that your relatives worked on a long time ago? Hows it holding up? I’m going to try and attach some pics of some tools that I was givin. Some of which were used by my great grandfather, and could still be used today!
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WHat's the deal with that brace and bit? Pretty unique.
Doo Dah, Doo Dah.
for drilling tight up against a wa;ll or floor.Think of your knuckles pounding as you rotate that drive hand if it were in a typical B&B
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
he should send the ladle to shredder for her CI project ...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
why is she melting lead down?
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
she's really gonna do a rightous job on her mom's rotted out CI...
I'm sure we can talk her into replacing the rotted CI with new CI..Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
I've one of those ladles, and recall using it with my dad to pour lead into oakum-packed CI joints, as well as into bullet molds.
the lead ladle mt grandfather gave me was used to seal the ends of wires, im sure glad they invented the wire nut!
View Image
half of good living is staying out of bad situations
Rez, thank you for remembering us out in the sticks... Although my satellite TV buddy says internet's coming that way. Eagerly awaiting details. Sure like Sirius.
Most of those tools live here, and get normal useage. The only framing square I have was my maternal grandfather's (Mom's 95 this yr) who died before I was born. It's one of those with thickness tapered legs, does everything I want it to do. And a lot of things I don't know how to do. Wonder if he did...
A collector friend was shocked at the handsaw I was using. Turns out it's relatively rare (expensive). How much? Heck, for that money I'd rather use it. Feels good to be using the same saw my grandfather did. Won't do what my Japanese saws will, but is friendlier.
About 35 yrs ago my godfather died. His collection of amateur tools was what got me started. 8" tablesaw, 4" jointer, decent collection of inexpensive planes, lots of hand tools. All the smaller stuff is still here, and used. Even the tool boxes, one of which has a pair of his old spectacles right next to the collection of Starrett calipers.
DW's concerned with proper disposal. Nice to keep in the family, if unlikely.PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
hey, thanks for down sizing the pic. didnt know how small i should make em'.
ya copper, the dial ups like attachments under 100 as anything more and it starts getting lengthy timewise to open the file.
be one of those 'go make a sammich' and wait routines:o)
half of good living is staying out of bad situations
Lots of liinks with lots of pix in the archives.
These are first 3 hits for searching for (old, tools, grandpa, {from ME}), etc.
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=46191.5
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=70981.9
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=54950.52
Good thread! I used to have many of my grandfather's tools, but most have been lost or broken (I'm embarrassed to say!).
I still have his old brass plumb bob, a small wooden folding rule, and my favorite treasure--his Stanley steel framing square--I guess it's stainless, as it doesn't have a lick of rust on it.
I carry the square in my toolbox, and I'm the only one who touches it. With all the talk of thieves, I may just polish it up and hang it on a wall in my office instead, though, I'd be really upset if something happened to it.Jason Pharez Construction
Framing Contractor
Do it, or keep it in your home shop.
I had a nice bamboo fly rod that belonged to my grandfather - canvas pouch and aluminum and brass storage tube. I was moving and put in a storage locker with a bunch of other stuff - it was broken into and that along with a bunch of other stuff was taken - only what was readily grabbed from in front. We lost some liquid silver and other jewelry supplies of my wifes and some of the cheap tools I had put aside - all worth some money, but the fly rod was the only thing that I mourned and still do - 20 years later. I had learned to fly fish with that rod, mostly as a connection to the old man I never knew.1 - measure the board twice, 2 - cut it once, 3 - measure the space where it is supposed to go 4 - get a new board and go back to step 1
I've got carpenter ancestors on both sides of the family, and I've got tools from some of them .
Some of the better ones are 35-40 wooden moulding planes that belonged to my great-great grandfather on my dad's side, and an Emmert's patternmaker's vise that belonged to a great-uncle on my mom's side.
Sadly, no carpenters on either side of my family. However, from sales a long time ago I have acquired some pretty old tools. I often wonder about the original users. There's alot of history there.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
For some of us all the tools we own from when we bought them years ago are now old.
Can you drive by a home that your relatives worked on a long time ago?
yes - some are doing very well -
I have collected worm drive saws from my uncles, grandfathers on both sides of the family. I am lucky to have a family full of carpenters, a very large base for old tools and knowledge.
The collection includes an old Milwaukee 7 1/4 worm drive, two skil wormdrives, an 8-1/4 worm drive, and a 10-1/4 Skil 860. With three more to add to the collection with the rest of my family retiring looks like I get to carry the torch or wormdrive now.
My Mommy says I'm special.
I got pretty good collection of planes, especially wood ones, moulding planes for sashes, mullions and few joiner planes, also have some old wrenches from grand fathers on both sides. Starting to get few wood levels, and some small hand drills. Watch at auction sales and flea markets for good buy's of couple $,$10 usually my limit for 'hangers'.
IF IT WAS EASY, EVERYONE COULD DO IT !
here is an old wormer for ya...
Woah. That IS an old wormer. Is that all factory, or is some of that customized?Tipi, Tipi, Tipi!
http://www.asmallwoodworkingcompany.com
it all looks factory...
I don't have anything that old, that saw looks like it weighs a ton. Any idea who made that one? My Mommy says I'm special.
There is a plate rivited on the case, says
MW Thackaberry
DISTRIBUTOR OF PORTIBLE POWER TOOLS
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
Googled & it looks like it was manufactered by Fred W Wappet electric hand saw company
Never heard of the company, probably means that it's worth some money then.My Mommy says I'm special.
that things scares me just looking at the picture
I've been truly blessed in the tool situation. Fathers side was ship builders and cabinet makers in Sweden. Have old wood block planes that were great,greatt grandfathers. Handles are as black as coal from years of sweat and working
Grandfather immigrated and was chief engineer for Fisher brothers, started as model maker, when they use to make them out of wood. Have most of his tools all in a custom made bench with holders for everything, incredible.
Mothers side tool and tie with Chrysler, so there is a lot of old time calipers and measuring devices.
There is virtually a treasure of tools in my fathers basement, I've spent hours going thru some of the stuff, some of it I have no idea what its purpose is for. Really need to get a oldtimer down there and go thru some of it, before the oldtimers are no longer with us.
Some of the duplicates my father has given me and I use quite often, mostly old smoothing and block planes, still get that warm fuzzy feeling when I hear that swoosh and a curly drops to the floor.
You should get some pictures of the old tools in your fathers basement. I'm sure the guys on here would be able to identify most of the tools for you."Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all." Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
I use a few of my Grandfather's tools regularly. "Fulton Special" chisels, some handsaws, and a 30" prybar.
The prybar was sitting in the back of my truck one day when I bought a lathe from an 87 year old guy. As we loaded the lathe, the old guy pulled out the bar and asked where I got it. I explained it had been my grandfather's. The guy's dad had been a blacksmith and he said his dad would have made the bar, it was the pattern that their shop made.
He showed me the anvil marks, then explained how their shop made 20 at a time for a large contractor in the area. Seems these bars disappeared quite often, and the contractor used to joked that he had bought every carpenter in town a bar like that. Gramps didn't stay in the trades, he settled on factory work when it became available.
I've got Gramps wooden tool chest too, but had to give up most of the tools, when it came time to split up the stuff after both grandparents passed on. (lots of cousins)
Bowz
Just picked up a 12" Walker-Turner bandsaw last night from my neighbor who's moving soon. Needs new tires, a tune up, and a little degreaser, but it will be very cool to have a working power tool from the 30s in my shop.
PJ
I never got any of my grandfather's tools - he died when I was 6 - and my uncle got everything. He was also a builder and my dad was an artist, so the choice was easy about who got the tools.
My dad is dead now, but my mom still lives in a house built by my grandfather. It was fifty years old in January, my birth month. I know this because my grandfather got it finished, gave it to my parents, and helped my dad move the furniture while my mother was in the hospital giving birth to me. When Dad brought us home, he drove past the little house he and my mom had been renting to the new home my mom had no clue about.
My grandfather didn't build many homes (maybe 15). But, he had no subs. He and his one helper formed for the basements, poured concrete, framed, plumbed, wired, laid brick, plastered, painted and roofed every house.
Those were the good old days.
Its never too late to be up to date.
http://grantlogan.net/
Just yesterday I was relocating tools in the various toolboxes, and had to move the dado set made by my grandfather.
A Swede, perhaps tired or just using an axe, he had cut circles out of the bottom of a horsedrawn shovel, cut teeth on em, and anealed, shaped and re-hardened old files into chippers to make a 6' dado set, It works (I've used it) it has no cash value, just testimonial value to the ingenuity of folks strapped for cash in the 30's.
I also have from him, table saw moulding blades he also forged from files for his 8" "driver line" table saw, with which he built more houses than I can even imagine.
I tried one once years ago, and it still cuts, but never again. Way too wicked and savage a cutter for rational folks to use at 3000+ RPM But it did cut cleanly. How many of the pundits of today could even think of achieving that.
Adolf Jacobson, my grandfather, is also perhaps responsable for what I do today, as at the age of 7 and 8, he let my brother and I use his lathe without supervision (but of course with some precursive instruction) . Nowadays, that would be called reckless endangerment. Drove my grandma nuts when we'd come upstairs covered in chips.
Good memories. I have some other tools of his, and some of them still get used -albiet infrequently;
the ghosts that haunt us eh?
Enjoy
Eric in Calgary