Rust Hunt Results

[Don Orr]

I don't do a lot of serious rust hunting but was out and about on Saturday and stopped in a couple of "Antique" shops (read junk shops) and found a few interesting things. In the multiple tool photo there is a wooden plane from one of the shops. It's a Winsted @ 16" long with a Providence Tool Co. blade and cap iron in pretty good condition. The wedge is also in good shape. At the other shop I got the little hammer, no name, the combination square which is a A.L. Stowell patent #1984951 for the slot in the rule and attachment to the head, and the #108 Fray brace with Spofford chuck. None of these are in great shape but are certainly restorable. A little PB Blaster got the thumb screw out of the bit chuck. $30 for these 4 items.352805352806

The saws came from the local HFH Restore for $3 each. Both are Warranted Superior but the smaller one is fairly old with a recessed medallion, split nuts and a nib. The wood is in decent shape but they need a lot of cleaning. The plates have some minor bends but not too bad.

All in all a fun day.

[Stew Denton]

Hi Don,

It DOES look like you had a fun day. The older saw especially looks really good.

From what you said, if everything is restorable, not only did you have a fun day, you had a GOOD day.

On these occasions I like to add, "ya did good!"

Stew

[Jerry Olexa]

ya did well....agree

[Chris Hachet]

Good indeed. I am pretty well set of hand tools at the moment, trying not to hunt rust myself.

[Gene Davis]

Time to do a restoration on that plane, like what Stewie just finished showing in a thread.

[Jim Koepke]

Good finds Don. Like Chris my inventory doesn't have many holes in it these days, but the hunt is still fun.

Last week a nice drill bit showed up for $2:

352820

It is a 5/8" Wards Master. It cuts good going into end grain. Could use a little sharpening. A wire brush in the drill press did a pretty good job of cleaning it up.

jtk

[Mark Fisher]

I'd been looking for a decent scorp for awhile. 352821
Found one on Friday (paid more than I wanted to). I hollow ground the back to simplify later sharpening, then ground, sharpened, and honed the edge. About an hour of work produced a perfectly good tool. I want to make a windsor style simple stool so this should help saddle the seat.

[Jim Koepke]

Great scorp, funny how those things show up. I found one at my favorite antique mall a couple years ago. I haven't had a chance to drop in there in quite a while. Another antique dealer told me their building had problems causing them to close.

jtk

[Dave Anderson NH]

Hi Mark, Your scorp was made by Ray Larsen while he was still alive and marketing under the name of Genuine Forgery. I have several tools I bought from Ray, a scorp, a drawknife, and a gutter adze.

[Rob Luter]

I love rust hunts, but after things getting out of hand I had to change my ways. I've done some major herd thinning over the last few months and established some ground rules:

1) Just because it's cool doesn't mean I need it
2) It needs to be something I will actually use.
3) It can't be a duplicate of something I already have, unless the condition level is way above my current specimen.

I'll let others collect them for the sake of collecting them. I keep reminding myself that the object of having tools is to use them. I hope I keep listening :D

[Ray Selinger]

After some long tedious cleaning and sharpening, I swore I wouldn't buy any chisels. This Sunday I found a 1" E.A. Berg socket bench chisel , a 3/4" J.Tyzack & Son tang bench chisel with a nice London pattern handle and a 3/4" Esteel plastic handled bench chisel. Two made in Sweden, one in England. For all of $4. I'm doing just as bad with my New Years resolutions.

[Stew Denton]

Rob,

Good set of rules. Sadly, I am a lot better at making rules than keeping them. I have WAY too many hand saws, about 3 times as many as I need, maybe not as many as some of the other guys, but way to many for me.....I remind myself "Self....you don't need any more handsaws,"...but if a Disston #12 showed up cheap my good judgment and advise to myself would go out the window.

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

+1 on the good set of rules Rob. My trouble is with rule #3. It seems there are a lot of duplicates. Maybe I need to have a sell off.

jtk

[Rob Luter]

Stew and Jim - I know where you're coming from. I had to make some hard choices over the last year. I decided if I hadn't used something in a year, I needed to consider moving it down the road. I divested myself of about 15 saws and 25 planes, with the last batch of block planes shipping tomorrow. I still have a batch of old chisels, Yankee drivers, and assorted stuff to unload too.

Not to worry though, as I retained a really nice user set of everything. I still have more planes than I can really rationalize, but I think it's a good idea to have the right plane for the job no matter how infrequently the job comes up.

[Don Orr]

Yeah, I don't actually "need" any of this stuff, but it's fun to dig around and find interesting things for cheap. I didn't have a Fray/Spofford brace before and the wood is in nice shape so that was new to me. I just happen to have a spoon bit that fits nicely in it. The wood on the plane is not in the best condition but might be salvageable. And I REALLY don't need more saws, but again they were there and cheap and the smaller saw is quite old and restorable. I'm not a serious collector or even user but I do enjoy cleaning up something that may not have been used in a very long time and getting it back in touch with some wood as originally intended. The comb. square is nice and square so that's a bonus. The little hammer is a nice size and weight for swaging rakers on timber saws. Cheap entertainment for a Saturday afternoon.

[Rob Luter]

I hear you Don. Restoring the saws and planes I found was as much fun as the hunt.