Very Valuable Tools

[Birdhunter]

I have been fortunately to be able to indulge my enjoyment of fine tools. I have a workshop filled, no, overfilled with Festool, SawStop, Woodpecker, and other fine tools.

There is one tool I would not part with. It's a spring loaded center punch.

After my Dad FINALLY decided to leave his lake home of 40 years, I got the job of cleaning out the house. I had made a deal with a trash hauler. He could have everything left on the house as payment for it being totally empty and ready for the painter to start work.

I was getting my Dad's tiny workshop cleared out and wanted something of his to keep. Most of his tools were very basic as Harbor Freight was an aspirational source for tools for him. I was flying home so could not take anything of weight. He had 3 punches laid out on the workbench. I grabbed those and put them into my checked bag.

He died a few months later and I do miss him very much.

Now, every time I need a punch, I grab one of those punches and say "Hi Dad". Those 3 punches would be the last tools I would give up.

 

[Euclid]

That’s a nice tale, Birdhunter.

I’m faced with clearing away much of my Mum’s stuff; we lost her last year.
She had been quite a keen woodworker for a time (along with numerous other crafts, including some fairly complex ones like weaving).
Her last project undertaken at her woodwork evening classes was to make her own bench - which we still have; it was made deliberately small to fit into our small garden shed, or be carried indoors if needed. It’s a bit too small now to be truly versatile if truth be known but I don’t really want to get rid of it.

Mum didn’t have a lot of really fine tools; she had a very expensive plane which I could never get to hold the blade properly firm, but there’s a Record block plane I shall restore (been sitting neglected in a garage for many years) and a lovely Record Plough Plane that is in fine condition. At least we still have a few pieces of the furniture she made more than 45 years ago, and still in use in Dad’s house!

 

[jaguar36]

I have a bunch of both of my grandfathers tools, but I have slowly been replacing them.  It makes me sad whenever I do, but the tools I've replaced them with are far more capable or safer.  I replaced my grandfathers old craftsman benchtop drill-press with a Bridgeport, the 3-wheel bandsaw got replaced with a Northfield, the 65 year old table saw will probably soon be replaced with a sawstop.  The almost 100 year old Kellog air compressor I recently replaced as I was worried as to the structural integrity of the tank.  I've kept all of the old tools so far, although I'm not sure why.

The other thing that I've recently gotten rid of was my grandfathers massive collection of fasteners.  He had a huge number of baby food/mason jars full of all sorts of nails, screws, brads, bolts and rivets.  I thought it would be great to always have the fastener I needed on hand, but it turns out that I'd prefer to just keep a few sizes of good Spax screws, and a few common bolt sizes.  The huge amount of real estate all those jars took up just wasn't worth it.  It did make make me very sad to just discard what was a lifetime collection.

 

[Birdhunter]

The Mason jar story reminded me that my Dad had 50 - 60 shoeboxes in his shop neatly labeled with the contents.

After my mother died, I found out the origin of all those shoeboxes. She had a large closet full of shoes. Some may have never been worn.

It all worked. She got to buy shoes and he got boxes for his stuff.

 

[McNally Family]

I have a bunch of both of my grandfathers tools, but I have slowly been replacing them.  It makes me sad whenever I do, but the tools I've replaced them with are far more capable or safer.  I replaced my grandfathers old craftsman benchtop drill-press with a Bridgeport, the 3-wheel bandsaw got replaced with a Northfield, the 65 year old table saw will probably soon be replaced with a sawstop.  The almost 100 year old Kellog air compressor I recently replaced as I was worried as to the structural integrity of the tank.  I've kept all of the old tools so far, although I'm not sure why.

The other thing that I've recently gotten rid of was my grandfathers massive collection of fasteners.  He had a huge number of baby food/mason jars full of all sorts of nails, screws, brads, bolts and rivets.  I thought it would be great to always have the fastener I needed on hand, but it turns out that I'd prefer to just keep a few sizes of good Spax screws, and a few common bolt sizes.  The huge amount of real estate all those jars took up just wasn't worth it.  It did make make me very sad to just discard what was a lifetime collection.

I was just thinking about my Dad's collection of all things metal, also kept in baby food jars.  Every house we ever lived in still has a series of racks he built in the shop area to hold those jars.  I was wishing we still had them, but they went with many other items when my Mom cleared out the old garage, after he passed. 

He had been accumulating those since the 1930's, when he was a kid.  I can remember using them when I was a kid and even then wondering what kind of project they came from.  I think he kept them over the years because he grew up during the depression, and it saved him money to not need to buy them as needed.

Today, my Dad would freak out over the prices Home Depot gets for a few bolts or screws. 

 

[johnbro]

Thanks for the story Birdhunter. My brother worked as a teenager at Orlando Boat company and had some Craftsman wire strippers--the kind where you squeeze the handles and they pop the insulation off a bit of wire. I have never master the traditional style wire strippers and when I was in my 20s I swiped those better ones from my brother--must be 40 years I've had them.

Well he died unexpectedly last summer and now whenever I grab those wire strippers I think of him. I've got an ancient folding rule my Dad gave me and I think of him when I use it (I actually prefer tape measures). So I get what you mean.