On some jobs I have been asked if I want to help myself to old tools in the garage – usually a deceased husband whose wife doesn’t know what to do with them. They almost insist as I’ll be able to ‘make use’ of them being a Handyman etc. Things like screws etc can sometimes be reused (even found an original tin of asbestos ‘Screwfix’ in one !) but I have built up a collection of old fashioned tools – chisels (OK I use these for clobbering things), pinion hand drills, hand crank drills, spiral ratchet screwdrivers, wooden spirit levels and rulers, tools that I don’t even know they do really, etc. I cannot imagine me turning up to a job with these tools but I have often thought about doing so for a little humour (would need a bigger van of course). I looked on ebay and there is a small market for specific branded tools but it seems a lot of hassle. What do others do with their old tools – consign them to the Hippobag or something more useful ?
If you consider them a hassle, deliver them to me, . Chisels,planes, wooden moulding planes will usually fetch £25 plus at auction,you get general & specialist wood working auctions at some sale rooms, the old wood & brass levels fetch money. The chisels & screwdrivers of yester year are of a quailty you don't see today. I have chisels 100 years old or older, & still use them, same with cabinet screwdrivers. Other week I got a Stanley 2 speed breast drill out of a skip, virtually new,plus other things from a shed clearance. http://www.oldtools.co.uk/4-wooden-planes http://www.oldhandtools.co.uk/metal-planes
I forgot to mention Wood Planes - I have about 4 of those as well. I thought I might actually try one out next time I have a need to shave a bit of wood. I'm probably a bit of a heathen but I always end up chucking the slot headed screws away - so I end up using the screwdrivers for paint mixing etc. Sorry - I'll take more care next time.
Old saws all also very collectable especially branded ones like Diston, old bench vices are also worth a lot as old shoe making lasts
With screwdrivers you want to look out for cabinet makers ones or waggoners ones which are similar but 450m to 1m long.
Diston fetch crazy prices, as do record woodworking vices & engineering vices regardless of maker, got a large engineering vice from a clearance skip last year, need a clean & grease, works perfectly.
Yikes - forgot to mention the saws. I do actually use the Tenon Saws and I have let my scout group loose with others at Camps to saw firewood. I think they are probably a few carpenters turning in their graves at the moment !
Leg vices do well, anvils make a small fortune, been looking one,silly money, to replace one I sold some years ago. Got a working 1" bench pillar drill here, that was free, don't use it much, as just too heavy to move, bench wouldn't take weight.
Because of the steel, tin and coal industry down here, there are quite often some interesting things turning up in peoples garages. The one thing I have been looking for years which i have never managed to find is a proper miners pick axe with a curved head. They are the same are a full size pick axe but about the third of the size. Apart from digging the are so useful for lifting boards and paving slabs and mixing concrete !
Anvil and stand about £400 now Sometimes you could kick yourself the stuff you got rid of years ago that now costs a fortune - like the dinky and corgi toys popular in the 60's now selling for silly money on eBay
Our host sell a micro pick axe & very good it is. http://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-1lb-micro-pick-mattock-15/18368 Also have a micro bull nose shovel & a spade, so very useful to have, both from our host. http://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-round-point-micro-shovel-27/53829
I have one of those,it's particularly interesting to me because in the late 1700,s my ancestors came over from the Welsh valley's to Haydock on Merseyside.Apparently there were 3 brothers who came over from the Rhonda and worked in a local pit,they stayed with a bloke who was a widower and he had a daughter aged about 16,the story goes that around 6 months later the 3 brothers headed back to Wales and some time later the first of my English ancestors was born,father unknown.lol
Yes, that the sort of thing, hoping to get one with a proper wooden handle. You would think there would be loads around down here. The shovel, you just reminded me. I had one somewhere don't know where it is gone - i haven't seen it in years. I have two of the giant ones of the little shovel. They stand about 4 ft high, glass fibre handles brilliant for digging out, shifting rubble and sand
Yep, a lot of guys from North Wales went up to Liverpool - shame about the state of the "Welsh Cathedral" up there
There are numerous charities out there who want old tools which they then send out to Africa or other locations. http://www.tfsr.org/ is one organisation and there are more.
Have to agree with the posters who mention the quality of the steel used in old chisels. I have a few chisels, must be at least 90+ yrs old (and only a few inches long now) but these hold a sharp edge much longer then new chisels. Even a chisel 2" long has a great life left in it. Could probably last an apprentice until he's middle aged.
I love using old tools. I have a few saws, hand drills & bits and carpenters squares and rules, and garden tools - shears and lawn mowers from 1940s - 1960s in the shed. They still all work great, and look so cool too. I cut grass using a Qualcast hand push mower from 1950s, and it works fine.