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in the '70s I saw a box of Rabone Chesterman (they merged and consolidated into the Sheffield works on Ecclesall Rd) of this type (angles marked, spirit level, slightly less fancy joint), selling for peanuts at a market stall - because the box wood had warped - I bought some hoping to 'unwarp'...

Just a quick comment re spring steel - the clue is in the name - it should be quite bendable - saw makers often demonstrated this by bending their best hand saws in a complete circle (tip to handle). After all spring steel is not the very highest level of carbon and should not be tempered to a...

Good for you for storing your files carefully but I have to say I don't think they're quite that delicate - if so you surely would run a mile from any boot sale files (which have almost certainly clashed hard together a thousand times). I might nearly agree with you if you were just referring...

Ooops,sorry the French king did Britain a great favour kicking out all the Huguenots who came over to London and elsewhere with their many skills

Do you mean E A Berg (shark brand) - Swedish made and good? (taken over by Bahco who also acquired Record Marples for a while in the 90s)anyway, between them, made in Sheffield or Eskilstuna .. ie quality.

The anodised layer of aluminium oxide is certainly very hard. However its strength regarding impact damage etc depends on the aluminium beneath, which is obviously much softer - this is a well-known compromise to all hard coating - eg the bright golden titanium nitride on some drills and other...

BUT if you feel a need to collect tools --- nothing better than chisels - older usually means quality for little money: clean, sharpen, make a new handle, gather a set and pass them on. Wards, Marples, Greaves, etc. Maybe not as productive as building fine furniture, but fun and useful to the...

If any UK woodworkers wonder what a Nicholson Super-shear (D-W above - good suggestion) is - I believe it's a milled then hardened rasp/file/plane used a lot in the car body repair industry for lead filler, fibreglass, plastics and light alloys. 'Invented and patented by Nicholson in 1953' ----...

nice - put me down for a couple. danny

Yup - wish tool-makers wouldn't plate steel.

fairly large wood or rawhide hammer/mallet (3 in dia) spreads the load - for me

Thanks for this - I use linseed oil pretty much as you do and sometimes wax, but didn't know it was an antifungal - is this all beeswax, or an addition to some commercial polishes or? I'm usually more observant but hadn't spotted why some tool handles/planes got a surface mould - easy to rub...

So it can hold a cylinder head - firmly enough to actually work on it?

sawing eggboxes, what else?

Maybe getting off-topic here: I was educated as a 'bio' scientist, but after this and that finished up in engineering/metallurgy - so not a 'true' engineer, but had a colleague who certainly was - he gave his two sons motorbikes as they reached 17, but tore them down first so they had to...

I believe they are, --- better not be a large cast-iron straight six or bigger. I have a 74, and gave a 75 to my bro in law when he had a large old Bentley - don't think he held the engine by a spark plug screw, but he uses it a lot. However, Nick, if you happen to know anyone (such as nabs?)...

Doesn't sound this would do for you, but I somehow finished up with 3 hardwood draughtsman's large T-squares - actually pretty accurate and I reach for one of these each time I'm marking up sheet goods etc - very nice mahogany versions (best and biggest one I had was mahogany with blackwood...

Just making some 'covid19 lock-down' cupboards cut into the plasterboard/drywall of the attic bedroom - fairly rough plywood job, but trimming with some oak offcut mouldings (about 35mm x 15mm) doing the mitres for this and tried thin blade fine tooth Japanese saw, thin blade fine cut Zona (both...

yes - I refurbed mine about 15 years ago and, despite having other vices (no, seriously) this is my 'go to' for many jobs

Those 'buttons' look rather like those threaded on wire to cut stone in quarries - a whole wire with many thousands of buttons is quite expensive but the few on one plate would not be $$$$ - if they're not the same, and the button plate is useful, I can see some supplier coming up with a much...