My bride and I took our annual Spring road trip this past week. We enjoy Americana and spend a few days traveling two lane byways, antiquing, enjoying local flavor, and seeing the sights. This year we chose Ohio Amish country and found the tool selection abundant. My wallet is thankful that I've recently divested myself of all my surplus and vowed to limit purchases based on actual utility as opposed to tool lust.
A couple places to check out if you are in Mid Ohio:
Delaware, OH. Just north of Columbus. Home of Ohio Wesleyan University. There are a couple antique shops downtown on Sandusky Street. The Delaware Antique Mall has a tool dealer with some great inventory. He has several NOS Eggbeaters that are "as new" in the original boxes, more that are immaculate but without boxes, a couple new and unused Record Planes, plus a number of other planes, saws, and an abundance of measuring and marking tools. Super reasonable prices. I picked up a nearly new #18 bevel. These are the best bevels out there in my book. Some are more elegant, but these just flat out work properly and never slip.
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Millersburg, OH - Some may recall a previous post where I was seeking information on The Colonial Homestead Workshop in Millersburg, OH as a rust hunt destination. It should be on every Neander's bucket list. They specialize in vintage woodworking, smithing, timber framing, and gunsmithing tools. The proprietor, Dan Raber, is a helpful and informative guy. His inventory is staggering. Hundreds of block planes, bench planes, chisels, saws, and specialty items. A woodworker new to the hobby could easily assemble a top quality user kit made of all vintage tools, and do so for a very reasonable investment. There were a number of collector grade pieces too.
I was looking for a decent drawknife. Dan had about 30 to choose from. I wound up taking this very clean Lakeside home with me.
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I was also looking for a couple paring chisels. There were hundreds to choose from, all organized in cubbies by type and size. I wanted a 1/2" paring blade for cleaning out dados. I found a nice Buck Brothers cranked neck version. I also found a nice vintage 1 1/2" Butcher Cast Steel chisel that will make a fine paring blade. It can't decide if it's a parer or a firmer, but the blade is not too thick, it had a long handle, and no one had beaten it with a mallet that I can tell. Both took razor edges and promise to work well for my intended purpose.
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