New Carboot Tools

[tombear]

Picked up a better condition Monodex nibbler on Saturday for 3 quid. Huddersfield flea. For once it just needed a clean!

Very quiet on the tool front but did luck out on other stuff I was actively looking for like a strong set of stainless steel cup measures for 50p.

ATB

Tom

 

[MartiniDave]

Oh how I hate those Monodex nibblers! Caused me many a blood blister during my apprenticeship using them on stuff that was just on the limit for them.
I found they were prone to slipping out of adjustment quite often.

 

[tombear]

Ouch! good job I'll just be faffing about cutting thin stuff and mainly non ferrous at that!

I had a turn around the Accy Flea today, lots of dirt cheap pots but very few tools I don't already have or want spares of. I did blow £2 on this pair.

Pretty rough but I had a use for the handle thing and you cant have too many spokeshaves.

It needed release oil to take the 'shave apart. Soaked them for a hour in strong hot oxcilic acid, rinsed them well and gave them a go on the bench grinder which I'd fitted a new wire wheel to.

The handle i wanted to take a big reamer that fits on my brace usually. There's signs of welded repairs on the knurled part so someone once took care of it and its marked. "GOODELL.PRATT COMPANY GREENFIELD MASS U.S.A". with "T..C" in a circle

The spoke shave is Stanley No. 63 with the rounded base, The blade is marked "STANLEY" "MADE IN U.S.A" with the famous sweetheart logo between the two. The base needed most work, dragging and rocking it over 3 grades of diamond stone to get most of the pitting out, then polishing. The blade needed flattening on the face (I only did the section below the U shaped cut out, partly to preserve the markings). This put a decent edge on it so I left the bade at that. There's some pitting near the cutting age so it will never be brilliant but it will do for roughing out and I can finish with another. For a quid a pop and a couple of hours work I cant moan!

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

From a quick surf it seams the markings date the spokeshave 1923 to 1932.

'Found a good vid for setting up and sharpening

I'm still looking for a better Stanley No. 55 hollow spokeshave or similar. I have a genuine Bailey one but there's a tiny crack in the front guard which i don't trust. Its not shown any sign of moving so far but still... Back in the day they would have just bridged it with a bump of bronze braze and got back to work..

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Well we got out to my took guy at Colne but there wasn't much I was after. The stuff I could do with finding is now all a bit obscure and wont be turning up anytime soon, I reckon, So I mostly got consumables while I could get them cheap.

Herself got the old doming block for her own use ( needs polishing out a lot ) she already has the rod things for it. she turned her nose at some wire drawing pliers for 10 quid as thats a bit advanced for her as yet. The copper nails were £4 a KG and cut down make decent cheap rivets ( you can get them for between 16 and 18 quid a kg new ) The large pegs were a quid and the spare surform blades 50p a pop, Handy, as no. 2 son just killed a half round one last week and put my last spare on.

The only tool I got last wek was something Ive been looking for a cheap one to try for a while a saw blade rasp.

This one was a quid and pretty much unused. Just needed chemical derusting (just a light patina) and a quick brush off of the residue. Unfortunately I was a bit clumsy and removed the paint near the ferule so I quickly masked it off and slapped on a couple of coats of GW Enchanted Blue to seal the wood. No markings but its rather like the old CK ones rather than the new Shinto ones from Japan. Anyroad, worth a go. It's double sided, bigger teeth on one side.

ATB

Tom

 

[Tony]

Good stuff tombear

 

[tombear]

After a very dry spell on the tool front (I'll spare you what I did find, not bushy or tooly but enough so i didn't get disheartened ) I actually picked up a few bits worth having in the last week.

Bottom to top, a couple of GB made retracting Stanley knives for a quid each , just need quick spins on the wire wheel,
Leather stretching pliers, unmarked but cleaned up lovely, £5, from the patina quite old, some excellent condition nose cutting Bernard USA nose cutting pliers £2, Unused curved awl deeply stamped ENGLAND £1.50,
3 moticer drills, very sharp but with some surface rust, two will fit my machine and the third I will clean up and put on ebay and get some or all of the £9 they cost back.
Surform with pretty much unused Carbide sanding plate £2 needed a wash and the remains of the foul, thick, heavily chipped paint sanding off the beech handles and them soaking in BLO.

What delighted me most was the 17" pancheon we blew £23 on. in a charity shop in Colne. the real article and in lovely usable condition. I'll make a light pine lid for it when i can get some quarter inch board. I've been looking for one for at least 8 years. Got that today and the staff hinted that there may be similar old cooking gear coming their way as they clear some old ladies house.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

I hit a carboot for what feels like half a year on sunday, had a whale of a time despite only finding a couple of things at all relevant to this thread. Also got to a few charity shops and a flea market yesterday. Here's the highlights.

3 quid got me a nice saw that should clean up lovely, no visible markings except a oval with 20.79 inside it, Herself blew £10 on full sets of capital letter and numbers metal stamps, the faces need a light brush with a brass brush to clean them out and ill whiz the rest on the wire wheel. The characters are no more than a 10th of a inch high (we've already got two sizes of them, whats she making, the One Ring?) The letters are unmarked but the numbers are stamped with I T C superimposed over each other within a ring and ENGLAND beneath.

For some reason ever since junior school I've wanted a old guillotine. We have a rubbish modern slide along one rescued from the skip when they closed the office I was working at but this is more the item. Made by Gestetner and it nearly killed me dragging it home from Accrington on two buses. The blade doen't need sharpening so I'll just tidy it up some. £!0

It's not that there wasn't lots of tools out there but I'm now looking for such obscure stuff now, having a pretty full set of everything I'm likely to use, its either not turning up or some one who can get there when folk are setting up is snaffling them! Like whats the chance of a good Stanley Compass plane turning up or the leather stamps I don't have? Sorry I'm whining, I'm a bit of a addict is all!

Good hunting!

ATB

Tom

PS one excellent score, not shown,, was 34 packs of 3 hand sewing needles made by Singer in the UK as a advertising gift. By the dresses in the illustration they were done in the 1950s, maybeth very early 60s. two out of each pack are large eyed sharps like I use with my beloved thick linen thread, beautifully made, gold plated eyes... I few had rust speckles but I've treated them with oxcilic and then polished them smooth on a tiny cotton wheel on the Dremel, I used the finest polishing paste block I had. I had to buy a job lot of knitting needles and pins for a quid to get them. They should keep me going!

 

[snappingturtle]

I've been a bit busy playing catch up so not had a lot of time for tools but theres been the odd find.

This ones a bit of a mystery, not what it is but how the hell you use it. i butchered a can of custard trying to work out how its supposed to, well, work. Its a Camp P. C. PATENT No 185226 can opener. This one doesn't have the patent number on it but there's several on the interweb with more complete markings It says " English Make" rather than "Made in England" which I've not seen before. Anyway looking at the others it is complete

The patent is from about 1920 i've read but my limited google fu hasn't found me a copy which would of course completely tell me how to use it! 'Cost me 2 quid from my Tool guy in Colne. Tala made a very similar opener as late as the 1950s so by any chance do any of you know how to use it? It cleaned up well, a 2 hour dip in oxcillic acid, a rinse in weak bleach to neutrilse the acid, a good wash then a light buzz on the wire wheel.

A quid got me 84 heavy pure copper tacks that will cut down nicely to be rivets.

I've got this far with the 1 3/4lb Brades hatchet I'm doing up for herself.

I'll have to redo some of the varnish on the handle but once i discovered how useful a flappy wheel is on fitted to a chuck on my bench grinder its been plain sailing. I'll polish the blade with the black paste block on the buffing wheel then sharpen it on the Tormek first time. After the edge is set up I'll use the three grades of wet and dry glued to MDF blocks method as in Robin Woods excellent video tutorial. Then I need to make a head cover for it.

ATB

Tom

I think I might know how the can opener works, would you not punch the hook looking tip into the tin, then rest the roll pin of the lower arm on the lip and scissor away!?

 

[tombear]

Cheers, I'll dig it out and have a try that sometime.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Herself took me out for the day and I had a few decent wins, some charity shop craft books and some tools from my guy in Colne.

Lyrus Made in England ratchet screwdriver, lovely firm action, should clean up grand (£2)
Home made dovetail gauge, a bit rough but the first Ive come across, (£1)
6 Archimedes drill bits in wooden container (£1) since been treated with oxcilic acid , just need the residue removing now, unused.
The rather rusty fretsaw I'll do up for herself for her jewelry making kit, it has a nice new multidirectional wire blade, I forget what they are called.

I got another 50p rolling pin, not quite sure of the wood, looks a lot like ash, to be used as a turning blank for handles.
Old school tough plastic funnel to ease filling of the 22 pint Thermette 79p

From a charity shop that had a big pile of cloth of various types a 42" x 60" of prewashed calico and a 38" x 55" piece of light weight canvas. Should make some draw cord bags.

The 8 to a inch stitch marker was 3 quid I think a couple of weeks back and cleaned up lovely, it's a proper leather working one rather than a sewing one which is good for pricking through paper before chalking through to mark the cloth like my other 8 to a inch job.

ATB

Tom

 

[Mesquite]

Ohhh, I forgot you did wood turning Tom. I'll drop you an email with a little commission if you'd be interested

Nice haul of tools, I was looking at an archemides drill just this weekend but put it back when the seller said they wanted £7.50 for it

 

[tombear]

No worries so long as its not too complicated, I think i've posted pics of everything I've done so you can see my skill level. Lack of big pieces of suitable wood is the main thing holding me back from learning how to do fancier stuff Drop us a line anytime.

Yeah unless its a fancy antique gents job your looking at a couple of quid for one on boots and fleas. I've got nine now although I need a brass nut for one as th thin walled thing it came with snapped on tighening it up to stop a round drill bit slipping.

The proper square shanked flat bits work best and now I've six more of them Ill fit on of each side to the best one once Ive cleaned the black muck from the derusting off. All that will take is a quick rub with autosol. The one with the cross bar works by far the best. At some point I'll make some ring and dot makers for some of them. Ill give the wood a rub with linseed oil before I put them back, they are looking a little dry from being stored on a window sill.

It.s worth looking for the ones with end caps as the two above had several spare drills in them.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

I had a bit of time free yesterday so cleaned up some of the previous finds. They came out of the various tanks of linseed oil or in the case of the screwdriver, Danish oil with dye in it ( it was cheap and covers up and deep stains that won't reasonably sand out ) this AM Once again The big glass sweet jar came in handy for soaking the larger pieces of wood while the Horlicks mixers are just the right size and weight for most tool handles. Well worth picking upif you see them cheap.

Under the rust the coping saw was marked ABRAFRAME REGD TRADE MARK MADE IN ENGLAND,the blades as near new as makes no difference and needed no work. The last time I used one of those was at school cutting out some thin brass sheet to make a enameled key fob/ring thing. I'll have to keep my eye out for spare blades.

The Frame saw came up a treat, the blade I chemically derusted then rubbed the residue off avoiding the teeth, with a rag and some Autosol.The teeth are as sharp as new so it was worth saving the blade. There was too little pitting to mention. Ill run it through some scrap wood to remove and residue before using it properly. No makers mark but its well made. the frames beech and the handles, I think, are box wood. I didn't go mad on the finishing as its going in my green woodworking tool box so will get some mild battering. 3 quid and some elbow grease well spent.

The Archimedes bits have some age staining but the rust turned out to be purely surface stuff so no oitting to hinder use. After polishing i toocked the edges up with a superfine diamond card, one pass each side was enough.

All the screwdriver needed was a dip in the oxcilic acid and a buff on the cotton wheel to get the residue off. I sand the handle down as the varnish was heavily chipped, there were some rough patches and the worn down end was blackened with grime. The blade had already been fettled by Mike at Colne Tools so i was just tarting it up.

And that's your lot for this session.

ATB

Tom

 

[Mesquite]

You really do some amazing transformations with the tools you find Tom

 

[tombear]

Cheers, the trick is i think picking your fights carefully. With practice you get to know whats just cosmetic damage and whats really good stuff that will respond to a bit of work.

We hit Huddersfield flea market on Saturday and the First sunday of the month Tescos ca rpark carboot at Accrington today. Most of our finds weren't bushy or even tool related, Picked up a bunch of excellent Pental graphics markers things the youngest loves for his cartoons for peanuts a a pack of unused Cotman watercolour tubes for a pittance for myself but I digress.

Best buy was the 26" Spear and Jackson saw, perhaps not the top of the range but for five quid and needing no more than a light rub with a fine Geryflex block and buff up with wire wool and oil and, since i'm a tart, a quick coat of gloss varnish on the beech grip to cover the chips on the handle from storage. i'm pretty sure its never been used, the teeth are as sharp as new anyway. It must be pre 1971 as the price, 35/= is pre decimal. The card sleeve was in poor shape so I've just taped it together and left it on windowsill to become bone dry.

I tried to find some dating info and stumbled on a nice, if biased, little article on the firm and saw making.

http://toolemera.com/bkpdf/Story of the Saw(2).pdf

Herself bought me a neat little pre war swing kit for a couple of quid. I'll load up the empty bobbin with heavy linen thread and fill the needle case later. the thimble says "Buy Dr. Lovelaces Soap" or some such

The scissors are wickedly sharp and well made, normally i'd shun foreign made ones but the sticky labels on it said Soligen and they fel quality. £4. I rubbed off some dirt with Isopropyl alcohol, nothing else needed doing to them.

The red and green objects are needle threaders, 50p each. I don't normally need them but time passes...

After Huddersfield flea and a surprisingly good meal at Morrison's we visited the Colne valley Museum at Golcar as its only 20 mins away and we hadn't been since it was done up. There was three men working in the cloggers shop and one of them gave a excellent talk on the subject while demonstrating the various parts of the procses. I knew just enough to ask some sensible questions. He kindly showed me how they fixed the pig bristle to the thread ( anyone able to get pig bristles still with the root on? ) and used a belt over a beam to use as a clamp while making the awl holes through the top and out of the edge of the leather to sew through. That day there wasn't anyone demonstrating with the spinning wheels or looms which would have been nice but that's the way it goes.

ATB

Tom

 

[Macaroon]

'Herself bought me a neat little pre war swing kit for a couple of quid.'

Very understanding wife you have there, tom, to indulge you like that......

 

[tombear]

Smegging autocorrect! it's a world where the consensus must be that swinging is more common than sewing!

I wonder what a swinging kit would have in it? From the documentaries it must include a blindfold and something to dull the senses....

Answers in a plain brown envelope to....

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

While I was at it i decided to oil the rest of the medium sized saw I keep on a window seat in a old 2 shell ammo box the father inlaw gave me and I tarted up. It's over full so i have taken out the scotch eye augers and spare sledge hammer I'de dumped in it.

It's given me a chance to stock take and see what I should be looking for. it would seam back saws with fewer teeth per inch and big rip saws. I'm not desperate but with the band saw still US stuff that cuts quickly are very handy to have.

.

Theres a few I wont mind palming of on the sons as i replace with better quality. Th only ones bought new are the floorboard job, needed in a hurry, the Big Disston that was in a closing down sale and the blond handled S&J backsaw the wife bought herself pre me. Theres also the obligatory jar of junior hacksaws with various blades and a big pot of gents saws and a llike and another of bone saws for modelling. There's also a tin of sharpening gear. I really should make a proper blade sharpening stand. Saying that I've done no more than touch up the odd blade in the last 10 years, it's easier to find a nice newish one on a boot!

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Went to
Ive been looking for a curved surform Colne tools and blew a fiver on a few bits.

I've been looking for a palm sized curved surform blade for a while, too cheap to buy one full whack. I've swapped it onto a spare handle.

The larger tinsmiths hand seaming tool is marked PRIORY 3/8 and some unreadable bits I'll decipher when it's cleaned up. the smaller is just marked 1/8. I'll debur and clean them up.

The tool on the right looks like it's been converted from a pair of pincers or nose cutting wire cutters the holes 9/16" across. I've no idea what its for or why I bought it! Any ideas? About the what it is for that is.

ATB

Tom