I wonder if everyone has "soft spots" for certain orphan tools?
Stuff you don't really need, but you can't resist?

  One of mine is tack lifters. Maybe its because all the tack lifters I 
ever saw before I started to work on tools, were ridiculous! They almost 
never work!
The claws are flat as a pancake where you need them to dig in, and a 
square ground V-notch that wouldn't hold anything. Usually with a huge 
opening like you were pulling 20 penny sinkers with it, instead of 
upholstery tacks.

   So, the other day I was gifted a tack puller. It was marked Keen 
Kutter and had a good curve to the the shank. The handle was not 
unshapely (but it came with a paper thin ferrule that never did fit, 
which was cracked of course).

   Meandering side note. What is it with ferrules? How much more can it 
cost to make a ferrule you can actually be proud of?
  Am I wrong or would there be a market for 14ga brass ferrules of 
adequate length
  (compared to the 24ga stubbies they usually sell and also use on 
commercial made tools.)

    Anyway I grabbed a 3/8" flare nut and turned that to fit.
I sure miss the Millrat.  I taught him this trick and whoo hoo did he 
ever run with it!!
Oh man he made so many cool ones!! A different design every time and on 
all kinds of handles.

The claws got first pinched together a little to close the gap,
then ground/filed/carved 6 ways to Sunday.
You can't see, but the underside its rounded presenting the start of the 
V notch prominent, as it should.
The claw ends are ground a little back on each side so the points stick 
out a little.
  And the notch itself is ground in a taper on each side, so it'll grab 
a fastener head as it works.

    Another tool in the gift box was this killer solid boxwood mortise 
gauge. It was a grungy and missing a pin.
I could have used a drill shank or something hard, but in 35 years the 
little nail I filed down for my first marking gauge has been working 
perfect all these years.

   The blade of a marking gauge needs to look almost exactly like the 
spur on an auger bit. Kind of a tombstone shaped knife. Once you get the 
shape, they last and last.
  So I hunted down a tiny brad and peined it into place, then shaped the 
edge with files.

http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/oldtools/tackpuller.JPG
yours scott


-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html