Tools, carving, and trains, oh my!

[Paul F Franklin]

Wasn't sure where to put this as it crosses several forums...admins move if desired...

My wife and I escaped for a couple of days to celebrate my recent birthday and give her a break from her daily grind. Since I got to plan the trip, many of the stops we made on the way to and from our cabin in Salt Fork State Park in Ohio were woodworking related. I thought I'd share a few pics of some of the highlights.

We started with a stop at Colonial Homestead in Millersburg, OH. I've been before but it is always a pleasant visit. It's an Amish business and they specialize in vintage tools of many types, but especially woodworking tools. They have hundreds of planes, saws, chisels, axes, adzes, hammers, mallets, measuring tools, etc, etc. Some in great condition, some in not so great condition. If you're into vintage hand tools of any type, you owe yourself a visit if you are ever in the area. Plus, it's close to Yoder lumber and a number of Amish run mills.

I only took a couple of pics because I wasn't sure how the Amish feel about it, but trust me, it's worth the trip. (note the gas lighting)

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Next stop was Keim Home Center, in Charm Ohio. They have an fabulous selection of modern tools of all types, including some stationary power tools. They also have a whole section of domestic and exotic woods targeted towards woodworkers (in addition to a full lumberyard). Didn't take any pics, but again, worth a trip.

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[Paul F Franklin]

Another woodworking related stop was the Earnest Warther Museum near Dover Ohio. Earnest (Mooney) Warther has a really interesting back story, but he became famous for his carvings of steam trains, and also other steam driven machines. He started out as whittler, and became rather well know at the time for whittling wooden pliers, but progressed to a master carver of amazing ability.

These first pics are of his "plier tree", comprising 511 interconnected pairs of wooden pliers carved (whittled) from a single block of wood. A replica of the block of wood is shown in the third pic. 31,000 precise cuts later, the plier tree was complete.

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Mooney worked for many years at a steel mill, and he carved several animated models commemorating his time there. They are incredibly detailed (as were all his later models) and the animation is quite sophisticated for the time. One of the workers is eating a piece of pie, and you can see his jaw move after he bites into the pie. Mooney carved every single piece of the models and did the mechanics as well. All his models are pinned together; no glue was used. The second picture shows the underside of one of the models, showing the mechanism.

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[Paul F Franklin]

Here are pics of several of the many, many carvings in Mooney's "History of Steam" series. Anyone with an interest in steam locomotives and/or carving would enjoy this museum for sure. Mooney started out carving with basswood and pine and beef bone. As he progressed in skill and could afford it, he often used real ivory and ebony. The museum is careful to point out that Mooney procured his ivory only from animals that died a natural death.

The third pic shows a collection of carved parts taken from an "inferior model" that was later disassembled. His models were made from all these individual (and tiny!) carved pieces, pinned together; not carved in the whole.

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[Paul F Franklin]

The last stop I'll mention here is not woodworking related, but it is train related for those into trains.....

The Dennison Depot Museum in Dennison Ohio is a restored train depot from the heyday of the Pennsylvania RR. It has a fascinating history in general, but especially because of the role it played in WWII. During the war effort, many thousands of troops traveled from all over the country to the east coast via the railroads. A network of "Canteens" grew up around the country where volunteers would provide food and drink to these soldiers during the very short stops the trains made to take on water and fuel. Dennison was one of the largest of these canteens and the museum has an excellent film describing how these volunteers (virtually all women, of course) organized the effort, collected donations of food and other necessities, and served hundreds of soldiers in just a few minutes whenever a troop train came to the depot.

Although the canteen effort is a centerpiece of the museum, there are many exhibits and collection of general information about trains and the railroads. Some of the exhibits are in train cars that are part of the museum. One of the exhibits is a scale model of the depot in its heyday. As you can see from the first pic, it was snowing when we arrived at the museum...

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[Earl McLain]

Wow, truly some fascinating stops, thanks for the education and ideas!! We live near the Heston Steam Museum in northwest Indiana, worth a visit on a future trip. We’ve been looking for some new places to visit, the Warther museum would make the list easily.
earl

[Ron Selzer]

Went to the Warther Museum on the first date with my wife 13 1/2 yrs ago. Was a very interesting place to go.
I need to go to Colonial Homestead and check it out, have been to Keim Lumber, it has grown over the years. Yoder lumber is where I buy my hardwood lumber at, great people to deal with.
Need to get to Dennison to look at that museum as it is close to me. Dennison University tried to recruit my son 20 yrs ago to enroll as a Poetry major.
Ron

[Kris Cook]

Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a fun trip. My wife and I are getting on a train tomorrow evening in Whitefish; heading for the Oregon coast for a week.

We are looking forward to it.

[Roger Feeley]

I stopped by Keim last year on the advice of this forum and it was great. I was a little nervous about hitting a carriage or startling a horse so I drove those last few miles pretty slow. That was great because it gave me a chance to admire the farms. I’ve seen a lot of farms and these were real showpieces. Fences and barn in good condition and painted. Animals looked healthy and content.

somebody correct me if I’m wrong but the lumber prices seemed very reasonable. I don’t remember what I paid but I think it was about half of what I pay here in the DC area. Yes, I know I’m paying too much because it’s DC.

[Bill Bukovec]

I went to Colonial Homestead last year. The guy was nice and quite the salesman. I took a Stanley #3 home with me. I plan to make another stop this September.

Kiem lumber was fabulous.My wife and I enjoyed looking at all the tools and wood.

[David Utterback]

Your post is inspiration for me. Thanks!