It seems I have to write a bio so I can ask my question (and gloat
a bit perhaps too).
I am a thirty-five year old attorney, until Monday anyway. I practice
in Shelburne Falls, Mass., which is about ten miles west of
Greenfield. Not surprisingly, there is a lot of Millers Falls stuff
at tag sales around here.
My mother was an antique dealer. So, I spent a large chunk of my
childhood at antique shows. The tools of course, were just about the
only thing I found interesting at most of those shows. When I was
about 12, I even picked up a couple of cheep paint covered wooden
planes, cleaned them, and tried to sell them in her booth. That was
the end of any attempts to be a tool dealer.
My, ah, accumulation of tools has its basis in two sources.
First, I have inherited some things from my machinist grandfather.
These include a forties craftsman lathe and b*nd saw, and a starret
combination square with protractor head and center finder, and a few
other measuring tools. Unfortunately, when his stuff was divided up,
I was quite young, and my cousins made off with most of it. My second
source was an old pattern makers toolbox my Dad bought cheap when I
was young. All that is really left of that now is a few saws, a 271,
marking gauges, and a couple other odds and ends. I am afraid to
think what I may have lost or destroyed as a kid, using those tools
for such things as a tree fort in the woods.
After college, I apprenticed for a year at a commercial cabinet
shop in Maine. We mostly used tailed equipment, but I learned that
there was definitely times and places when hand tools were faster.
There was this one guy, Torque, who would spend days designing and
building a r**ter jig to avoid having to use a plane for five
minutes. I also learned that had a slight weakness when I saw
something for sale that said Starret on it. When the eighties real
estate boom went bust, so did my job at the cabinet shop, and my
access to large p*w*r tools. Thus, my steady accumulation of hand
tools since then.
I mostly buy tools at tag sales and flea markets. I am definitely
a bottom feeder. To spend more than ten dollars on a tool is rare.
To spend thirty is extraordinary, in fact I can't remember ever
spending thirty dollars or more on a hand tool.
This hasn't stopped me from building up a small accumulation of
good tools. Planes seem to be something that everyone recognizes.
Ignoring block planes, I have a Stanley 5C, a chromed 4 with three
patent dates, a 3 (that needs a lever cap), 12 (that needs a blade),
a 72, 78, 80, and 271. I also have Millers Falls numbers 22, 15, and
14. Millers Falls apparently used the length of a plane for its
number, so those are equivalent to a 7, 51/2, and a 5. (I think)
Bottom feeding can be good.
Replies Author Date
56679 Bio David Sawyer Wed 10/27/1999
57203 Bio James Gemmill Sun 11/7/1999
57204 Re: Bio Bill Webber Sun 11/7/1999
57205 Re: Bio Jim Erdman Sun 11/7/1999
57206 Re: Bio garyallan may Sun 11/7/1999
57208 Re: Bio scott grandstaff Sun 11/7/1999
57209 Re: Bio James Gemmill Sun 11/7/1999
57210 Re: Bio TomPrice@a... Sun 11/7/1999
57227 Re: Bio Minch Sun 11/7/1999
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