Moses Yoder
11-15-2014, 5:54 PM
Last Saturday afternoon I was poking around my local Craigslist and did a search for "wood tool". I found nothing of interest in the local list but in the "surrounding areas" I found this pic under the heading "misc. wood tools" or something like that.
300331
The chisels jumped out at me. I have a thing for chisel like objects. I have a box full of them but these were exceptional. In the description he said they were Buck Bros chisels and gouges and was asking $5 each. I only had $10 in my tool budget at the time but I called him anyway. I asked if he would take $15 for the five chisels, and after a slight hesitation he said he would. The ad had been up two weeks already. I asked him if I could pick them up the next Friday and he said that would be fine. I have been working my tail off. We take inventory at the end of October and all the companies let their inventory drop and then order truckloads after inventory, making November one of the busiest months. I have been working 9 hour days and 1/2 days Saturdays, which is a lot for me. Today we worked a 6 hour day. Added to that, my daughter had her spleen removed on Tuesday. I had to go through all of this stuff before I got to the chisels. Not that the chisels are really that important, just that I was afraid I would somehow miss out on them. On Wednesday I called Bill (saved to contacts as "Bill Chisels") and told him I definitely wanted the chisels and if he would hold them for me for sure I would pay him his asking price, $25. He said he would. It was a long week but the day finally arrived yesterday and I drove from work a half hour to Lakeville IN. Thanks to Google earth and mapquest I drove right to his place with just an address and knew exactly what it would look like before I got there. Scary. I finally met Bill and saw the chisels. They were better than I expected. The one crank neck chisel is a W Marples & Sons 1", then there is Buck Bros 1" straight chisel and the Buck Bros crank neck gouges are 1/4", 1/2", and 3/4". The blades are all about 7" long, overall the chisels are about 14" long. I asked Bill where they came from and he replied "England!" I said No, I mean where did you get them? He said he bought them new somewhere, he was a pattern maker for 35 years, retired now. He said this was his secondary set, which would explain why they are hardly used. I paid him his $25 and we parted ways. I set them in the car seat where I would see them on the way home. Each one is neatly stamped "B. Duncan" on the handle. They are destined to be sharpened and hung in my tool box as users next summer.
300332
300331
The chisels jumped out at me. I have a thing for chisel like objects. I have a box full of them but these were exceptional. In the description he said they were Buck Bros chisels and gouges and was asking $5 each. I only had $10 in my tool budget at the time but I called him anyway. I asked if he would take $15 for the five chisels, and after a slight hesitation he said he would. The ad had been up two weeks already. I asked him if I could pick them up the next Friday and he said that would be fine. I have been working my tail off. We take inventory at the end of October and all the companies let their inventory drop and then order truckloads after inventory, making November one of the busiest months. I have been working 9 hour days and 1/2 days Saturdays, which is a lot for me. Today we worked a 6 hour day. Added to that, my daughter had her spleen removed on Tuesday. I had to go through all of this stuff before I got to the chisels. Not that the chisels are really that important, just that I was afraid I would somehow miss out on them. On Wednesday I called Bill (saved to contacts as "Bill Chisels") and told him I definitely wanted the chisels and if he would hold them for me for sure I would pay him his asking price, $25. He said he would. It was a long week but the day finally arrived yesterday and I drove from work a half hour to Lakeville IN. Thanks to Google earth and mapquest I drove right to his place with just an address and knew exactly what it would look like before I got there. Scary. I finally met Bill and saw the chisels. They were better than I expected. The one crank neck chisel is a W Marples & Sons 1", then there is Buck Bros 1" straight chisel and the Buck Bros crank neck gouges are 1/4", 1/2", and 3/4". The blades are all about 7" long, overall the chisels are about 14" long. I asked Bill where they came from and he replied "England!" I said No, I mean where did you get them? He said he bought them new somewhere, he was a pattern maker for 35 years, retired now. He said this was his secondary set, which would explain why they are hardly used. I paid him his $25 and we parted ways. I set them in the car seat where I would see them on the way home. Each one is neatly stamped "B. Duncan" on the handle. They are destined to be sharpened and hung in my tool box as users next summer.
300332