Kittyhawk
Established Member
You know you're getting on a bit when you regularly use inherited tools in your workshop that you can occasionally buy in antique shops for 20 times what your father paid for them.
Old age
- Thread starter Kittyhawk
- Start date
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Well the good news is, at least some of the inherited tools will be an order of magnitude better to use than some plastic-handled, tool-like object that feels utterly lifeless. 
I have two particular tools from my dad that are precious both for their connection & because they are just good tools to use. One is a Disston D-8 that he bought new in the late 30s. He would've paid a good proportion of his weekly wage for the saw at the time, but I picked up a similar saw at a flea market in the 80s for a couple of dollars, which was a negligible proportion of my weekly income. A decade or so ago, a friend intercepted a rather good Disston thumb-hole rip on it's way to landfill and directed it my way instead. That cost me nothing. So the wheel turns round & round.
I sometimes browse throughjunk antique shops hoping to stumble on the odd gem. They so often don't know the real value of tools & ask absurd amounts for absolute rubbish, but occasinally you find a gold nugget in the overburden. That's how I got my excellent Record 07. It was sitting beside several very inferior Bailey clones of Asian origin, all in very poor condition & frozen solid by rust. Each was priced at $50, which was at least 10 times their worth. The 07 had some superficial rust, but the guts were clean & the sole looked to be in excellent shape and the rosewood handles were positively shouting "Please, just get me out of here!". It had no price on it, so I casually asked the seller what he wanted for it, expecting some astronomical & unrealistic sum. " Fifty", he said - I almost dislocated my elbow whipping my wallet out! It took even less effort than I thought it would to restore it to full function & that plane is one of my prize possessions.
So while the the trend in old tool prices is ever up, and availability declining, there is the occasional bargain to be had. I've managed to put together a pretty decent kit, and it's only taken me 50 years......
Cheers,
Ian
I have two particular tools from my dad that are precious both for their connection & because they are just good tools to use. One is a Disston D-8 that he bought new in the late 30s. He would've paid a good proportion of his weekly wage for the saw at the time, but I picked up a similar saw at a flea market in the 80s for a couple of dollars, which was a negligible proportion of my weekly income. A decade or so ago, a friend intercepted a rather good Disston thumb-hole rip on it's way to landfill and directed it my way instead. That cost me nothing. So the wheel turns round & round.
I sometimes browse through
So while the the trend in old tool prices is ever up, and availability declining, there is the occasional bargain to be had. I've managed to put together a pretty decent kit, and it's only taken me 50 years......
Cheers,
Ian
Orraloon
Established Member
The price of those old tools would have been on a par with todays prices and perhaps more. The numbers have changed a lot however. I have the box for my WS A78 plane and thats got 46 shillings penciled on it. Would have been half a weeks pay pay back in the day.
I had a feeling old moment in the supermarket the other day when I thought that kilo of sausages is more than my first weeks pay.
Regards
John
I had a feeling old moment in the supermarket the other day when I thought that kilo of sausages is more than my first weeks pay.
Regards
John
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
I feel old when I realise I spend more on newspapers now in a week than I earned when first working.
Sporky McGuffin
Light entertainer
Orraloon
Established Member
Usually just by the 1/2 kilo but we have things labeled as cost per kilo and cost of the pack so you can compare prices.
Regards
John
Regards
John
Droogs
Not the Sharpest Moderator in the box
I fancied getting a Sunday paper not long ago (for a change) and nearly had a heart attack the last time I bought a Sunday Times it was 80p having just gone up from 60p. I stopped buying in protest lol, seems the protest was ignored
I think just accepting the cost of things gets more difficult as you get older, I spend twice what my mortgage was on just food now and as for plastic who would have thought that could command such a price.
Kittyhawk
Established Member
The whole price and trade thing is crazy.
We are awash in trees here in NZ yet the price of timber and timber products has gone through the roof. That's because we export almost all our logs to China and then import them back in as wood panels and plywood.
Already way back then before I retired the first time I was at sea - we were alongside in Auckland discharging California oranges from No.2 Hatch and back loading NZ oranges in No.5 Hatch for California. We also carried a grand piano for the new town Hall that inadvertently got loaded into a reefer container and made the voyage at -20° which didn't do it much good...another story..
But the prompt for my original post was that I was at a friends home recently and he had a display of beautiful little wooden molding planes on a shelf in his lounge. He bought then from an antique shop because they looked nice and had nó idea what they were. And I wanted them
We are awash in trees here in NZ yet the price of timber and timber products has gone through the roof. That's because we export almost all our logs to China and then import them back in as wood panels and plywood.
Already way back then before I retired the first time I was at sea - we were alongside in Auckland discharging California oranges from No.2 Hatch and back loading NZ oranges in No.5 Hatch for California. We also carried a grand piano for the new town Hall that inadvertently got loaded into a reefer container and made the voyage at -20° which didn't do it much good...another story..
But the prompt for my original post was that I was at a friends home recently and he had a display of beautiful little wooden molding planes on a shelf in his lounge. He bought then from an antique shop because they looked nice and had nó idea what they were. And I wanted them
Solicitus
Established Member
Some of my favourites are relatively insignificant tools that my great-grandfather and my grandfather used. The physical act of working with them feels like a real connection with the last, and an era long since gone. An awl, a pin hammer, a large slotted screwdriver, a wee coffin plane, an engineers square. Nothing valuable, or fancy. But history, if only of my own family, at my fingertips.
Ah, the old "use vs collect" divide...
"Genuine" collectors are against us "users" in one way - they drive up prices and lock away what may be eminently usable tools. On the other hand, they do 'preserve' the tools and some may even fall into the hands of an appreciative user someday, but at the very least they are still in existence & can be seen & copied if desired.
Casual collectors like your friend are a worry. If he was a serious collector, he would have known exactly what he had and his collection would likely be an asset catalogued in his will or whatever and dealt with in a respectful way on his demise. But chances are, none of his beneficiaries has the slightest interest in such things and there's a good chance they could end up in landfill!
It must happen far too often. Not so long ago I helped clean up FIL's shed & his son would have dumped all but a couple of his tools (including an old 78 complete with fence & depth stop!) if I hadn't kindly offered to save him the trip!
C'est la vie......
Ian
Yeah, but thems supermarket sausages, so god alone knows whats in them
Orraloon
Established Member
Does not do to dwell on that. There is an Australian answer to what is in pies however. Earholes eyeholes and ar----es.
Regards
John
Regards
John
Two of my most valued tools are a combination set made up from parts my grandfather owned as a carpenter, added to by my father a tool maker and recently by my self, all could have been cast in the same mold. Also a T square made by my father when he was an apprentice.
Tris
What am I doing here?
Someone wrote on here, regarding inherited tools, to the effect of the tool can do this even if I can't.
My late FIL was a great maker of things in wood and metal and we still have things that he made in the 70s. It was an odd feeling recently to be using some of his tools to make something for his granddaughter, whom he never got to meet.
My late FIL was a great maker of things in wood and metal and we still have things that he made in the 70s. It was an odd feeling recently to be using some of his tools to make something for his granddaughter, whom he never got to meet.
Keith 66
Established Member
Sitting on a shelf near me now is a fine Norris plane. It was given to my Dad by his father on his 21st birthday & cost £12, at that time not long after the war Grandad was a train driver on the Lner, it was damn near a weeks wages for him.
Today its worth a weeks wages. The plane hasnt appreciated the money has devalued.
Today its worth a weeks wages. The plane hasnt appreciated the money has devalued.
Henniep
Established Member
So many familar experiences amoungst us. I also inherited tools fron Grandad and Dad, which I use frequently. Partly because of the family connection and partly because they are good/solid quality.
I've been been changing the shape of pieces of timber for fifty years with the help of historical tools. (Pity I will have no family to pass them on to one day when I am unable to use them any more)
Also a familiar experience, Henniep! Although I have several children, none has shown any interest in woodwork other than to ask me to make them the occasional item or fix something around their houses. They're now in their 40s & I don't see any signs of a conversion, but I haven't lost hope entirely, at least two folks I know of took up w'working after retirement & one became a superb craftsman. I don't want to insist they inherit the tools, I know they would just sit somewhere gathering dust & rust & making them feel guilty because they find them a damned nuisance and don't know what to do with them.
So I've decided all fellow woodworkers are "family" & I'll have a fire-sale at irresistible prices in a few more years when the arthritis & failed eyesight take all the fun out of shed-time. With luck, most of them will find homes where they'll get the attention & use they're accustomed to....
Ian
Orraloon
Established Member
I am kind of the same boat Ian. None of mine have shown too much interest but a small ray of light with the youngest. Doing a career change and has started as a locksmith's apprentice. Using some tools now at least.
Regards
John
Regards
John
