Esteemed Galoots;

I've been lurking here for quite a few months, so I thought that its
about time to delurk.

I live in York county Pa, near to York, where quite a few old tools go to
die. Have SWMBO
and 3 younguns (the youngest SWMBette a budding GIT).  Got the bug after
my father in
law passed on and left a smallish collection (5, 6, 12, braces,
spokeshaves, etc.) of Stanley
stuff to his son, who immediately passed them off on me.  Well, I havn't
been the same since,
and have spent a few years now rounding out the collection (if that's
possible), and abusing wood.

SWMBO tells me Friday night last, that I will want to get out of the
house Sat morning, so she can
sleep, so why don't I go to an estate auction and buy myself a Father's
Day present.  Now I was
going to the auction anyway, but getting permission to spend makes it all
that much more fun.

So I pack up the kids and truck on down to this old farm auction. Inside
the barn they had about the
nastiest collection of abused hand tools that I've seen in quite a while,
however outside the barn
there were a few interesting blacksmithing type implements (forge,
anvils, etc.),  so I pulled up
the old lawn chair and settled down to a few hours of entertainment.
 Inside the barn I scored four
saw sets in the same lot for a buck (Stanley 42W, 42, Disston, and a
noname), a Disston 12" rosewood square
for a buck and a Stanley 53 spokeshave for two, all in good user
condition although not really gloatable.

But I'd been eyeing a few of the larger tools outside the barn; a couple
of post drill presses, and several
post vises, figuring it might take up to $100 to reel in a set. After the
dust had settled, I had
one of each for $19, both complete and in real nice working condition.
 The press is made by
Champion Blower and Forge, Lancaster PA.  The kids have pretty much taken
it over.

Gary Caron