A House 173 Short
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FORMER BOSS' GRANDFATHER'S TOOLS
I TAKE 'EM OR THEY GET TOSSED
TWO LARGE TOOLBOXES WORTH
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About a year ago I was showing my former boss (let's call her Kim) about the Inherited Oil Can restoration. She feigned interest for a minute or so, then said she had two of her grandfather's tool boxes and if I was interested I could have them. Playing it cool, I simply said sure, I'll have to check them out sometime. Of course inside I was getting all giddy, but I figured if she was serious she'd bring it up again. Well, a few days ago she called and said she and her husband had sold their house and the closing was that day. If I wanted the tools I'd need to pick them up in the next few hours. Excited, and still giddy, I fired up the Jeep and hustled on over, not knowing what tools might be in the collection nor their condition. In no time, I had inherited two very large toolboxes worth of tools!
The Grand Opening!
I couldn't wait to get home, but I did. The boxes were pretty heavy and I felt that boded well for me! After lugging them to the basement, it was time to take a peak!
I loved it! I had secretly hoped there would be some rusted tools in these boxes and sure enough there were! All kinds of stuff lay before me, I felt like Ralphie staring at the Red Ryder BB Gun in A Christmas Story!
Downtown Hohman was prepared for its yearly bacchanalia of... peace on earth and good will to men. Higbees' corner window was traditionally a high-water mark... of the pre-Christmas season. First nighters, packed earmuff to earmuff, jostled in wonderment... before a golden tinkling display of mechanized, electronic joy.
Wow, there it is. The holy grail of Christmas gifts...The Red Ryder 200-shot range model air rifle. And there he is...Red Ryder himself! In his hand was the knurled stock of as coolly deadly-looking... a piece of weaponry as ever I had laid eyes on.
For weeks, I had been scheming to get my mitts on one of these... fearsome blue-steel beauties. My fevered brain seethed with the effort of trying to come up with... the infinitely subtle devices necessary to implant the Red Ryder range model air rifle indelibly into my parents' subconscious. - Ralphie in A Christmas Story
The Haul
I don't want to get into the details here. Seriously, there are so many pieces that I'll be working on these tools for a long time to come. But I will give you a bit of a hint with a couple highlights. The first box:
There's a bunch of stuff in here, lots of auger bits, a large brass plumb bob, marking tools and sharpening stones just to name a few. Then in the second box:
This box had a bunch of punches, some screwdrivers and chisels and other odds and ends. But the real exciting stuff are three saws and two wood planes! That's right ladies and gentlemen! Saws and planes!
To the Future!
So that's all I really want to get into here, this post being more of a heads up that there's likely to be any number of posts over time that will come from this out-of-the-blue tool haul. Kim's grandfather passed away 20 years ago, and had retired 20 years before that. So, these tools hadn't been touched in 40 years, leaving them in rough shape. As a result, I can see it taking some time to restore all these tools while sprinkling them in with other projects, but this post will at least give some context! Here's a hint to the first project from this collection...
This is gonna be fun!
