Woodworkers tool kit 1962-4 style

[Sideways]

I had something bought on ebay delivered last week wrapped in paper recycled from 1962 and 1964 editions of Practical Householder magazine.
A couple of the adverts caught my eye.
This is one of them :

It's been a year since we had a good beginners tool kit thread. What do you think ?

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Trades now need a Transit sized van to move all essential kit needed to do a job including bits of Festool, Makita, Dewalt and a dozen 4AH batteries.

Life was simple 60 years ago - all that was needed was a mahogany box with a few well chosen and sharpened tools. Any task was then within scope.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You must find everything a lot easier now, with so many power tools, someone once said to the old chippie I used to work with long ago. No, he said, I have to do jobs now that I wouldn't have done before.

 

[Doug B]

Trades now need a Transit sized van to move all essential kit needed to do a job including bits of Festool, Makita, Dewalt and a dozen 4AH batteries.

Life was simple 60 years ago - all that was needed was a mahogany box with a few well chosen and sharpened tools. Any task was then within scope.

Yes when I started the only power tool we had was a drill a far cry from today, back then labour was cheaper & we were given more time.
Technology is great but it means everyone wants things yesterday far the worse of this is the mobile phone as customers expect immediacy. Gone are the days when I worked for my father & customers would write a letter detailing the work they required doing.

As for old magazines I have quite a few especially the Woodworker dating back to the 30s

It’s good to look back through them, whilst some things have changed beyond all recognition others remain the same

 

[Yojevol]

Can't imagine what the cold chisel was intended for. I've got a keyhole saw but it's about the most useless tool I've ever owned.
Brian

 

[Sideways]

Just 2 chisels and a wooden smoothing plane. Shows you how little you need to keep going never mind get started in the trade.
But, shhh !
I don't see a sharpening stone

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Real craftsmen don't need a sharpening stone - a few swipes across the palm of a hand calloused by years of manual non-battery assisted woodworking endeavour is usually sufficient.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

Can't imagine what the cold chisel was intended for. I've got a keyhole saw but it's about the most useless tool I've ever owned.
Brian

My dad was a carpenter/house builder after WWII until 1990s. He always had a keyhole saw somewhere handy, but used for punching & cutting holes in drywall or plaster. I viewed that style saw like you do: useless!

 

[mark w]

I remember the first battery drill/driver i bought, a Black & Decker, the customer I was working for asked me a few questions about it, how long did it take to charge (about 3 hours back then), how long did it last between charges and why did I buy it. I explained I bought it to speed up my work and to save a bit of time, trying to be clever he said, "and what do you do with this time you've saved"
I answer customers questions about rechargeable drills I replied.
He looked at me, smiled and said, I'll leave you to it.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My first was a 9.6v Bosch. I had 1800 5/8" x 4 screws to put through 4mm birch ply into beech and I didn't fancy drilling 1800 pilot holes and driving 1800 screws in by hand.

 

[Keith Cocker]

My dad was a carpenter/house builder after WWII until 1990s. He always had a keyhole saw somewhere handy, but used for punching & cutting holes in drywall or plaster. I viewed that style saw like you do: useless!

I thought they were for cutting keyholes?

 

[worn thumbs]

Can't imagine what the cold chisel was intended for. I've got a keyhole saw but it's about the most useless tool I've ever owned.
Brian

If you didn't have an electric jigsaw,and not that many did in the 1960's,what other saw could you use to start a cut from a small drilled hole?Mine still sees occasional use but I suppose it depends on the type of work one might be used to.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

I thought they were for cutting keyholes?

Don’t know if they were or were not! Here in the states, if you find one, the blade is usually bent/twisted, as if used as a jab saw, weird because the saw plate is generally thick.

 

[Spectric]

I don't see a sharpening stone

Probably just used the nearest kerbstone, nothing fancy but got results.

Trades now need a Transit sized van to move all essential kit needed to do a job including bits of Festool, Makita, Dewalt and a dozen 4AH batteries.

Because tools have replaced many a core skill, we are all guilty of this and I know that I do try and use power tools to avoid something like a chisel if possible.

If I look back we had no cordless tools because there were none, the chippies turned up with a canvas bag with there saws hanging off the side and would work like a machine all day with us electricians using hand threading dies and tallow on bundles of conduit and rawl plug tools that required a hammer, and the good old brace and bit for holes in wood.

 

[heimlaga]

When we rebuilkt an old log granary which was originally built in the 1690-ies the cutting tools I saw marks of were:
-Short edged felling axe
-Broad axe
-Knife
-Chisel
-1 1/2 inch spoon auger.
-1 inch spoon auger
-Probably a Scandinavian style straight handled draw knife though I am not absolutely certain.
-The original door was gone so no plane marks in the remaining materials. I rekon the original door boars must have been planed.

I rekon there must have been some two dozen nails used in the building originally. Not a single saw mark anywhere. Everything was cross cut with the felling axe following the habit of the time. A bow saw blade was too valuable to use onsite.

 

[Blister]

Trades now need a Transit sized van to move all essential kit needed to do a job including bits of Festool, Makita, Dewalt and a dozen 4AH batteries.

Life was simple 60 years ago - all that was needed was a mahogany box with a few well chosen and sharpened tools. Any task was then within scope.

Ah but how did they sharpen them ?

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

Ah but how did they sharpen them ?

When I started in the trade, mid 70s, I used a two sided carborundum stone. Took me until nearly 40 years later to be told my edge tools were not sharp, via the YouTube "influencers".

 

[XTiffy]

My Dad was a carpenter/joiner for forty years and he had the normal stones for chisels and plane blades. For saws he had a wooden saw vice, to grip the saw,that he leaned the frame against a bench and used a saw set and file. All tradesmen were then expected to sharpen/clean their tools at the end of the day on their time. He also lugged his tools around London on bus and tube, he never drove. How times change.
A thought came to mind, he had a Stabila level way before Brexit. However did we trade with those countries previously? Also I visited many European countries before we joined the Common Market and I do not remember any problem in doing so!

 

[Rewby]

This post brought back memories of being an apprentice in the early nineties.All the joiners I worked with at the company were aged between 40 - 60 at the time and almost everyone used a toolbox they had made bar a couple who used green canvas bags with a plywood box they made from 1/4 ply that fitted inside it.
Often the blokes with the toolboxes would leave their boxes in the workshop or van and carry the bits they needed to do a job in a bass.

 

[BillHoughton]

...carry the bits they needed to do a job in a bass.

There was a myth in the U.S. that gangsters of the 1930s used to carry machine guns in violin cases (silly: the Thompson submachine gun, the "standard" gangster machine gun, at least in the movies, was way, way too big to fit in a violin case); but I've never heard of carrying tools in a bass. How did they get the tools out through the F-holes in a (standup) bass?