My Trip to Tool Heaven
Date: Mon, 2 Sep 1996
From: Tom Price
To: OldTools
Subject: Gloat - Tool Heaven
Warning - Lengthy, Unabashed Gloating And Recounting Of Flea Market
Adventures, Etc. - You Have Been Warned
Esteemed Galoots,
I don't live in Tool Heaven but I know where it is. Tool Heaven is
a quiet little corner of the Pennsylvania countryside and I went
there on Saturday. I use the term 'heaven' to describe more the
ambience of the place rather than the number of tools to be found
there. I met the inhabitants of Tool Heaven at the flea market I
visit over lunch hour on Friday's. They were sitting behind two
tables loaded with antique tools and cooking implements. I guessed
them to be in their late 70's. They were dressed in oldfashioned
clothing. She had on a sun bonnet and he a white broadbrimmed hat
and vest. Their attire looked perfectly natural on them and actually
very functional in the hot August sun. They made a handsome couple.
With his kindly demeanor and full head of white hair, he reminded me
of the poet Robert Bly (of 'Iron John' and the recent Mens Movement
fame). My youngest was with me but had gone down to another booth to
look at some beads (she likes to make beaded jewelry). Most of the
tools were of the bucksaw and scythe sort but they had a beautiful
Millers Falls No. 2 eggbeater drill and a nice smallish drawknife
which was stamped Douglas Mfg. Co. 'Cast Steel'. I picked up the
tools and chatted with them a bit. Elmer, as I later learned his
name to be, had priced the drawknife at $16 and the drill at $5. I
thought these to be reasonable prices, especially for the drill. My
daughter came back with a request for $4 for some beads. I stood
there with the two tools in one hand and a twenty in the other,
while trying to figure out how this could work. Elmer immediately
came down to $12 on the drawknife and $4 on the drill. I handed my
urchin the change and Elmer beamed as she ran off to get her beads.
(It wasn't a setup. Honest. I'm not that clever.) I missed a week
but returned to the flea market this past Friday to find the pair
there again. This time Elmer had a handsome Atkins 'spring steel'
handsaw on the table for $4. I picked up the saw and noticed a
couple of boxes of tools on the tailgate of his pickup. I wandered
over and pawed through them. There were mostly hammers and hatchets.
I noticed a nice cobbler's hammer for $5. No, I'm not a cobbler but
every Galoot should have one of these to tap on the irons, wedges
and striking buttons of their wooden planes with. Check out the
photos in Mike Dunbar's book if you don't believe me. I mean really,
this is what being an Elitist Neanderthal Bastahd is all about. ;-)
The hammer had C. Hammond stamped in one side and had been nicely
ground after forging.
After paying for the tools, I chatted with Elmer and discovered that
he had worked as manager of an auction house in Harrisburg, PA for
many years. He picked up odd and ends over the course of the years
and, after his retirement from the position, set up a little
antiques business to sell off the hoard. I came to find out that
Elmer and his wife were only present at the flea market on Fridays
because they sold antiques from a small store on their property on
Saturdays. I casually asked if he had tools at the store. Oh yes
smiled he, they had the 'tool shed' next to the building with
glassware etc. in it. Tool shed? TOOL SHED? My Galootish ears perked
up at that and I asked for directions to his place. The following
morning I drove north into the Pennsylvania countryside a few miles
and found the store on a quiet country lane well off the beaten
track. The store consisted of two low outbuildings next to a white
stone house. The house had a porch on two sides of it and there I
found Elmer seated on a wooden bench, going through his mail. He
got up and led me towards the tool shed which had a few tools
hanging in the inside of the open door. I was the only customer and
I got the impression that I have joined a select group as there were
no others during my visit. I have seen more tools in one place
before, but Elmer has some interesting stuff in there. He was
pleased at my level of interest. Most people he encounters have no
idea what the function of many once common tools are. He is not an
EAIA or MWTCA type of dealer and doesn't have a current price list
as he readily admitted. His methods of tool 'restoration' would
probably horrify most sophisticated collectors. I saw a wire wheel
on a hand drill, for instance. Despite this he didn't seem
interested in overcleaning most of his stuff, the handsaws being a
possible exception. His knowledge of the tools comes from experience
and a long life rather than descriptions from books. We walked
around as he pointed out tools of interest and explained their
function including a post mounted hand-cranked drill press with a
top ratchet feed ($40) and a wood boring machine for carpenters (not
priced). We looked over his private stash of framing and corner
chisels. He once had them for sale but has noticed that the price is
climbing so he is holding them back for a while. He picked out
several examples of round- and bevel-backed chisels with stout
blades and heavy hoop-ended handles. He paused at a display of
hatchets and pointed out the differences in the blacksmith made
versions vs the later mass produced ones. Regardless, most of them
had laminated blades. His oldest was a smith made mortising axe with
a laminated blade. He explained that the long narrow blade was used
to chop the mortises in fence posts. We next looked at some
carpenters and coopers adzes as he explained the difference in
function. We looked at the handplanes he had out. There were not
a great number but I examined an Ohio Tools 05 jack and pointed out
the tapered, laminated blade to him. This was priced at $20. Next to
it was the first Chaplin's Patent plane I have seen. This is a
corrugated jointer and has the hard rubber tote. The frog appeared
to be non-adjustable. He had it priced at $40. I didn't have $40 on
me or I would have snatched this one up. I may go back next weekend
to get it. Next door were a few more tools wired to a display and
some spokeshaves in a small display case.
Elmer left me to my own devices and went back to the porch to read
his mail. I picked out a wooden spokeshave in excellent condition
and went back to the shed to browse. There I found a Type 6
(1888-1892) Stanley #4 in a box marked '$5 per item'. The tote had a
clean break but was otherwise intact. The knob was cracked from top
to bottom and was held together with twine. The iron was original
("STANLEY" "PAT. AP'L 19, 92") with about an inch of blade left and,
surprisingly, little or no pitting on the back. Otherwise the plane
was rusty and covered with barn snarf. I picked this one up and
grabbed a Disston rip saw with a 5-nut handle for $6. The elaborate
etching on the blade was still quite visible. I paused with my
treasures in my hands and gazed out the shed door for a moment. The
afternoon sun shone brightly on a pastoral scene of whitewashed
stone house, a manicured lawn, and beyond it the intensely green
Pennsylvania countryside. The air seemed perfectly still. A stray
wasp drifted past the door and paused over Elmer as he dozed on the
bench, his cocker spaniel napping nearby and his mail at his feet.
Tool Heaven, I thought. Not a bad life, not bad. I should be so
lucky. Such moments are worth more than mere money. This is one
experience I would never have had if not the awakening of my
semi-dormant interest in old tools, thanks to the OldTools list. I
took in the scene for a few more minutes and went over to pay. Elmer
had roused himself from his nap by this time. He looked over my
selection and decided that $20 would be sufficent. I left and drove
back home with yet more well-oxidized iron on the back seat of my
car.
****************************
Tom Price (TomPrice@aol.com)
Just say a gazillion lines to say I took a ride and bought some
tools. I MUST be a Galoot and a verbose one at that.
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Copyright 1997 Thomas Price - All rights reserved