What are the most beautiful tools that you own

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Derek, you could tell us a story about how did you get this plane from Jim and how did you get to know him. Were you his student?

I would have loved to have studied with Jim Krenov at the College of the Redwoods. Krenov was a huge inspiration for me, as he was for countless others. Perhaps if I had been living in the USA ….

Krenov had retired and was spending his time making planes. I contacted him, corresponded with Britta, his wife, who let me know that they had a small number of planes for sale. I jumped at the opportunity.

This was in 2007, and he passed away a few years later.

Regards from Perth

Derek
 
I've come up with an answer for this, but it may not be what's prettiest or most interesting to anyone else. I feel like I can make a really pretty tool on command that has nuances in it that won't show up in pictures. but making tools for myself, I usually come up short of that just like a mechanic doesn't always keep their own car running perfectly - they know it's not necessary to do as good of work for themselves as they will for others.

The top picture is three sawmaker's hammers with a boxwood rule made by the toolmakers of colonial williamsburg on the right. Like really made by them, all the way down to making period stamps to stamp the letters. it's a wonderful display of a huge array of skills from the making of the tool itself to the tools needed to make it right.

The hammers were given to me as a gift, not really a trade, but probably loosely seen as that. I got them out of the box and was excited because it's the kind of thing I wouldn't look for and buy for myself. so I tarted the face of the first one up (quickly, not all the way through every single pit) and said "can you tell me more about these hammers". it turns out they were from a maker named yaitiki or yatiki who stubbornly continued to make saws by hand until very late in life. Oops on polishing one, but I doubt if he were still alive, he'd want someone to create a museum for his tools and worship them. so, i will use them making knives and maybe some saws in the long term. these were hammers he used, not just some hammers he had spare.



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I would have loved to have studied with Jim Krenov at the College of the Redwoods. Krenov was a huge inspiration for me, as he was for countless others. Perhaps if I had been living in the USA ….

Krenov had retired and was spending his time making planes. I contacted him, corresponded with Britta, his wife, who let me know that they had a small number of planes for sale. I jumped at the opportunity.

This was in 2007, and he passed away a few years later.

Regards from Perth

Derek
Thank you Derek,

it is nice to have something personally given by an artisan, who you consider an inspiration. I am glad that you managed to get the plane just two years before his death. It is something that is very rare.
 
I've come up with an answer for this, but it may not be what's prettiest or most interesting to anyone else. I feel like I can make a really pretty tool on command that has nuances in it that won't show up in pictures. but making tools for myself, I usually come up short of that just like a mechanic doesn't always keep their own car running perfectly - they know it's not necessary to do as good of work for themselves as they will for others.

The top picture is three sawmaker's hammers with a boxwood rule made by the toolmakers of colonial williamsburg on the right. Like really made by them, all the way down to making period stamps to stamp the letters. it's a wonderful display of a huge array of skills from the making of the tool itself to the tools needed to make it right.

The hammers were given to me as a gift, not really a trade, but probably loosely seen as that. I got them out of the box and was excited because it's the kind of thing I wouldn't look for and buy for myself. so I tarted the face of the first one up (quickly, not all the way through every single pit) and said "can you tell me more about these hammers". it turns out they were from a maker named yaitiki or yatiki who stubbornly continued to make saws by hand until very late in life. Oops on polishing one, but I doubt if he were still alive, he'd want someone to create a museum for his tools and worship them. so, i will use them making knives and maybe some saws in the long term. these were hammers he used, not just some hammers he had spare.



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David, I like tools that can tell the story of the previous craftsman who used them. Tools that were used by a professional craftsman and were maintained well are different animals than tools that rusted in a shed and were barely used by some DYI husband 50 years ago.
 
An 8oz ball pein hammer. Belonged to my dad, had the War Department arrow on it and the date 1947, year I was born. Not pretty, not beautiful but a nice piece of steel that takes a good polish.

One of the hammers used to make this ring from Scottish gold, panned by me, smelted and hammered into a ring, all hand work. Hallmarked at the Edinburgh Assy Office. 18ct.

Its not the tools, it's what you do with them!
 

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I have several, A long marking gauge with wedge locking, probably made by a friends grandad who was shipwright building Thames sailing barges. A long James Howarth 1.5" paring chisel, i got it out of a container of scrap iron & as the handle was riddled with woodworm i turned a replica for it.
A German Horned plane that came from Sea Kings boatyard owned by Reg Patten.
A Brades paring chisel of my Dads, i seem to remember it as much longer than it is now!
 
oh he wrote a lovely pamphlet on wooden spokeshaves and there manufacture. not a very common book at all.
 
Since the post is gravitating towards inherited tools this is, as far as I know, the only tool my father ever owned.
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He was certainly not in any way a DIY man so somewhat baffling as to why he should have owned such a thing. I can see from a few deformities that he also used it as a hammer. Circa late 1940's. Unlike Repair Shop customers I don't get transported back to my childhood with the accompanying warm fuzzies every time I pick if up, rather a sense of what a crude lump of iron it is.
Still use it now and again though.
 
Gotta be the Huanyang HY02D223B of course
startrite 2.JPG

What's not to love?

Not to be confused with the HY02D223B from the ISACON-ASKPOWER corporation,
They may be quiet, but lacking the relevant parameters for de-rating larger motors!

Beautifully crafted for the money :p
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2.2kW Huanyang VFD, around a hundred quid.
Realizing there is a world of 3 phase machines out there just waiting for one of these to be run from a domestic 13a supply, valuable information to know,
as often the good deals to be had are the "beauties".
 
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This is a very hard one to answer as beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say. I would also be happier with a tool that works beautifully than just looks good. Thats not to say I dont admire the look of some tools but the practical side takes first consideration. I also like the look of vintage tools over modern and stuff like Bridge City brings on the gag reflex.
Regards
John
 
Yairs, a difficult challenge to respond to! I'm a sucker for tools that I find aesthetically pleasing, and there is a very long tradition for blinged tools, so I'm far from alone there! Sentimental attachment is also a big factor, but function is paramount. Ideally, you might have tools that embody all 3...

Of the tools I would try to save in the event of catastrophe (fire & flood both being a bit too common in my neck of the woods), many are of my own manufacture and I would not have enough time left (nor enough blood, sweat, & tears!) to re-make them. Some I might class as perhps more "pretty", like this sliding-dovetail plane I made a few years ago (& have hardly ever had the need to use it since!) :
D_T plane a.jpg

Some are attractive enough, but even more delightful to use, like my favourite dovetail saw:

1st thin D-T.jpg
A couple, like this little "English thumb plane" are not exactly beautiful, but very nice in the hand, works very sweetly, & surprisingly (to me), more useful than I expected:

Adj 1.jpg

For sentimental value (and moderately good performance) the old 5 1/2 (a type 11) I got from my father would have to be be one of the first tools to save:

Shavings.jpg

It came to me with an ill-fitting lever-cap from a later era, and very damaged woodwork. The latter was easy to fix, but it took me many years to find a lever cap from the right period. As well as its sentimental value, this old workhorse gets more use than any other of my planes....

Cheers,
Ian
 
I have a number of rough finished tools my father made that while functional ain't gonna win any beauty contests.

One of my best factory tools is a low angle block plane (https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/hand-tools/planes/block/111924-veritas-nx60-block-plane) my wife gave me when it first came out almost ten years ago. I was gushing over the Lee Valley catalogue when it came in the mail box but because of the cost wasn't going to get it. It landed under the Christmas tree. I like using it.

Pete
 
Here are some tools I made:

Bridle Plough Plane (modelled after a Matheson) ..

111.jpg


110.jpg


Cutting gauge ...

5a.jpg


Mortice gauge ..

1-zpsgyw8ijei.jpg


Small brace ...

DA248-DBA-C4-C6-4-FD8-B370-58219-DE84-F7-B.jpg


Brace1.jpg


A couple of travishers ...

5a.jpg


Router plane (uses Veritas blades) ...

11-zps9c5dbd33.jpg


Saws:

Joinery-Saw.jpg



Thin plate dovetail saw ...

5.jpg


Restored Miller's Falls #15 1/2 mitrebox along with mitresaw built from scratch ...

mitrebox4.jpg



I make a lot of my tools. Not really valuable other than personal. Lots more if anyone is bored.

Regards from Perth

Derek
Beautiful tools are a pleasure to work with, especially like the mitre saw. Have just scored a 1909 Langdon Millers Falls mitre box and in the process of tuning a Disston panel saw for it. Mitre saws are just too hard to come by. Just so much eye candy, you must have a great workshop.
 
I have a Stanley no7 that was my wife's great grandfather's, her grandfather then inherited it and used it all his working life, her father then gifted it to me, there is a definite indent where the thumbs of craftsmen have moulded the rosewood tote over the decades of work.

I recently acquired a record 5 1/2ss from the estate of David Charlsworths, it had a hand written tag (I assume in David's hand) that had all the details including dates of different parts, I've done nothing to it other that sharpen it and put it to work, it's a wonderful plane.

Matt
 

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