Pete Taran
06-16-2018, 1:51 PM
This past week starting on Wednesday, the 2108 Spring Meeting of the Mid West Tool Collectors Association was held. If you have never heard of the MWTCA, you can check it out here (https://mwtca.org/join-renew-donate/join-mwtca/). For $26, it is the best money you will ever spend on your old/hand tool passion. You get a special publication every year (typically an antique tool catalog that has been reprinted), 4 issues of the Gristmill which contain scholarly articles on antique tools as well as information about upcoming meets and of course the ability to attend their twice annual national meets as well as the regional meets.
On Wednesday evening there is a social which I opted to skip, instead having dinner with some of my long time tool collecting buddys to include Patrick Leach, Steve McNulty and others. It kicks off in earnest DARK and early on Thursday morning with a no holds barred tail gate session. It seems the time it starts gets earlier and earlier. This year there was brisk trading already underway at 4:30 AM! A light is required and you have to move fast. I wear a fitbit, and I logged my 10,000 steps by 9 am. A view of a vendor table about 5:30 am just as the sun was coming up:
387883
Who needs to dig around for busted up chisels or roll the dice on Aldi when bargains like these can be had? Of course, all prices are negotiable:
387884
I bought some pretty nice and unique stuff this year. Some highlights include:
A pretty spectacular 1865 Disston and Son #12 with early cone shaped nuts. They don't turn up in this condition much anymore:
387885
In the early morning light, I thought this was just a regular Atkins 53 with misfiled teeth:
387886
As luck would have it (and 25 years of going to these things has taught me), I flipped it over, and by the dawns early light, I could see I had something far more special:
387887 387888
Salesman samples made by various makers with different sized teeth are pretty common, but I've never seen an instructional, how NOT to file and set teeth before. Very unusual and rare. None of the saw aficionados present had ever seen anything like it. Not bad for $10.
No need to consult the interweb experts about the bolt pattern of this saw to aid in identification, it's plainly visible from the etch and the protective sleeve it has lived in for the past 85 years:
387889
More in part 2
On Wednesday evening there is a social which I opted to skip, instead having dinner with some of my long time tool collecting buddys to include Patrick Leach, Steve McNulty and others. It kicks off in earnest DARK and early on Thursday morning with a no holds barred tail gate session. It seems the time it starts gets earlier and earlier. This year there was brisk trading already underway at 4:30 AM! A light is required and you have to move fast. I wear a fitbit, and I logged my 10,000 steps by 9 am. A view of a vendor table about 5:30 am just as the sun was coming up:
387883
Who needs to dig around for busted up chisels or roll the dice on Aldi when bargains like these can be had? Of course, all prices are negotiable:
387884
I bought some pretty nice and unique stuff this year. Some highlights include:
A pretty spectacular 1865 Disston and Son #12 with early cone shaped nuts. They don't turn up in this condition much anymore:
387885
In the early morning light, I thought this was just a regular Atkins 53 with misfiled teeth:
387886
As luck would have it (and 25 years of going to these things has taught me), I flipped it over, and by the dawns early light, I could see I had something far more special:
387887 387888
Salesman samples made by various makers with different sized teeth are pretty common, but I've never seen an instructional, how NOT to file and set teeth before. Very unusual and rare. None of the saw aficionados present had ever seen anything like it. Not bad for $10.
No need to consult the interweb experts about the bolt pattern of this saw to aid in identification, it's plainly visible from the etch and the protective sleeve it has lived in for the past 85 years:
387889
More in part 2