Rehabbing divider, try square and sliding bevel (rosewood brass and steel) and B.G.I.

[William Adams]

Divider, try Square (stamped I.R.S. in several places), screwdriver (stamped B.G.I. Co. Bridgeport Gun Implement Company? --- bummer about the broken handle, but suspect if unbroken would not have been present --- no other screwdrivers, and there should've been some for the planes) and sliding bevel w/ broken fine thread brass wingnut (also stamped I.R.S. w/ a different pair of initials on the butt).

Cleaned up the rosewood and brass w/ Gojo and then lemon oil --- the two chisels, and sliding bevel bolt are in Evapo-rust now.

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[Bill Houghton]

Nice finds; I hope the price reflected the condition.

I never knew the tax people needed try squares and sliding bevels. I guess that's to (a) keep everything straight, and (b) measure precisely what angle the taxpayer is trying to play.

[William Adams]

I think I did fairly well price/value-wise --- got the entire chest and (somewhat picked over) contents for $65.

Still working my way through it, but there's a shot of the chest, and details of the two chisels (and three handles) here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...eather-washers

I think there were three generations of tools / owners --- not sure how I can date the chest itself, but the oldest tools seem to've been post Civil-War--pre World War I, some others look to date during the depression, and a number of them from late '50s/early 60s (including the Diston D-8 saw unfortunately --- still trying to date the Rockwell saw).

I'm thinking the I.R.S. was the second owner's initials --- there's an EL stamped on the bottom of the sliding bevel, which is in an older style and seems original to it. The final owner (before me) was a John H. who (fortunately) didn't mark his tools. Need to de-rust the blade of the try square --- fine sanding block? Would the rosewood be okay submerged in Evapo-rust for a brief bit? I'm leery of doing it, but it sure would be convenient --- at first glance the chisel sockets cleaned up quite nicely.

Debating about the B.G.I. screwdriver --- do I just epoxy the handle or replace it? Any historical value to it? Odd the bit of metal globbed on it (welding incident?) probably going to file that off when I reshape it (need to make a jig for that first).