Yesterday we had our youngest daughter and her husband up. He does landscaping and other work and there was some to be done around the property. Janette just celebrated her birthday and Candy baked her a carrot cake. When going to pick them up I was a few minutes early and spotted a yard sale setting up. Not much, but did find an angle bracket, rusty old screwdriver and pliers. For me the heavy duty angle bracket was the best of the find. The rest was given the wire wheel treatment and will go in to one of my toolboxes. It all set me back a whole fifty cents.
Today we had to go into town to have some papers notarized and mailed. Candy also had to go to the lab at our hospital to get some blood work done and her new eyeglasses were in. Candy also wanted to go out for lunch somewhere. I suggested we go over the river to one of our favorite spots in Oregon and then go to Saint Helens to our favorite antique mall. She thought that was a good idea and thought of another store she would like to look in on.
There didn't seem to be anything for me at the antique mall. Went up to the counter to sit and wait. The woman there commented, "oh oh, his hands are empty." I mentioned there didn't seem to many tools in Tony's spaces and she said he changed his inventory for the upcoming Halloween celebration in town and had moved most of his tools to another store in Scappoose. She then inquired as to what I was wanting to find. I mentioned woodworking tools, she said there was a planer and made hand plane motions in one of the stalls and asked if I had looked on the third floor. I said something about the third floor usually not having much in the way of tools and that it was a bit of a climb for this old fart. She said there was a planner up there and told me which booth. So since Candy was still browsing I took the hike. Looking in the booth there were some nice hammers there, a Vaughn and another hammer for $6 a piece. I took the smaller one for Candy since she is always borrowing mine and isn't real good about returning them without me bugging her about it. I saw a transitional jack plane and a rounded bottom coffin plane. after looking at them a Stanley #45 caught my eye. Usually these are pretty beat up, sometimes with a welded repair and an outrageous price. I thought the price on this one was insane, $39. I checked the tag a few time to make sure it hadn't been switched. As I was turning it around in my hands one of the rods fell out and hit the floor, scaring the heck out of me. I didn't realize it was a rod that dropped until it was found on the floor. Interestingly the only blade with it was the slitter installed like a regular blade.
It didn't matter to me there are a bunch of others at home in the shop, this was one of those deals that just can't be refused:
Rust Hunt Find Stanley #45.jpgStanley #45 Rust Hunt Find.jpg
The worst spot of rust is on one side of the slitter. This plane almost looks like it hasn't been used. There isn't any shine to the rosewood fence from use. There is only a little bit of rust near the handle. Maybe it was used once with sweaty hands?
It often pays to have a chat with the people where you are hunting. They know where things are and want you to go away with less money in your pocket.
jtk
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Originally Posted by Jim Koepke
