Thanks for the warm welcome.

Richard's comments started me thinking.  Upon reflection, when I first
started acquiring new hand tools for woodworking, the characteristics
that gave me the impression that new tools are c#@p included such things
as plastic totes, handles, and adjusting screws, chisels that wouldn't
hold an edge, poor fit and finish on everything, dovetail saws with
cross-cut teeth, uncomfortable handles, etc.  Some of these problems can
be fixed, although in some case it requires substantial work.  

For example, early on, after I read an article in FWW (I think it was
by Rodriguez?) I took the thinnest dovetail saw I could find, cut the
handle off, filed big rip teeth in it, and carved my own handle from a
pattern in a Robert Wearing book.  It worked great and I still use it
for cutting my dovetails.  But I would have to say that when the only
thing left of the original saw is the steel in the blade and the brass
back, it is probably more than a tune up.

I think tuning up new hand tools and making them work is a great thing.
 But I'd rather spend the time with an old one . . .

Blake
           

>
>
>I think tuning up new hand tools and making them work is a great thing.
>  But I'd rather spend the time with an old one . . .
>
>
>Blake
>           
>
Amen to that, but I have recently revamped the handles on some saws 
purchased at my local Woodcraft store and consequently spend many 
happy hours using my comfortable UK saws; hours that might have been 
spent trying to find rusty ones that needed more or as much work. 
There is a joy though that can be felt but not so easily described 
when using 100+ year old tools that might have produced items of 
beauty, quality, utility and charm in days gone by.  It is as if the 
tool has absorbed some quality or spirit from it's previous owner's 
desire to create.  When in the shop, my ancient ones can inspire 
creative impulses that the new, though  high quality tools can not. 
The question might be... Does patina have spiritual qualities or am I 
just an excessively romantic old geek.  ;-)

-Rex

Looking for the ghost of William Morris in my S&J rip saw.

Rex writes :

>There is a joy though that can be felt but not so easily described 
>when using 100+ year old tools that might have produced items of 
>beauty, quality, utility and charm in days gone by.  It is as if the 
>tool has absorbed some quality or spirit from it's previous owner's 
>desire to create.  When in the shop, my ancient ones can inspire 
>creative impulses that the new, though  high quality tools can not. 

I've been trying to find suitable words to describe what I like
about the oldtools list and the tools we talk about and this says 
it very nicely.  When I walk into my shop there is something given
off by all the old tools that I don't think I'd get from a bunch 
of new ones, even less from a bunch of machines.

What makes oldtools different from the other places is history.  
When I use a hundred year-old saw I feel like I'm part of a long
woodworking tradition.  When I use a plastic-handled Sandvik I 
feel like I'm doit-yourselfer.

It's people like Ken Roberts who have given us the history.  To
me it doesn't even matter if it's accurate.  It still gives me 
something to stand on.

Paul Pedersen     
Montreal (Quebec)

GG's

I believe Brother Rex has reached Galoot Level #69, you give a little, and
the tool gives back more.

Al Perreault
Wachusett Galoot
Westminster, Ma

> There is a joy though that can be felt but not so easily described
> when using 100+ year old tools that might have produced items of
> beauty, quality, utility and charm in days gone by.  It is as if the
> tool has absorbed some quality or spirit from it's previous owner's
> desire to create.  When in the shop, my ancient ones can inspire
> creative impulses that the new, though  high quality tools can not.
> The question might be... Does patina have spiritual qualities or am I
> just an excessively romantic old geek.  ;-)
>
> -Rex
>

Rex you did a great job of putting the list into words(not that words
are in short supply). Finding an old plane, saw, spokeshave or whatever
and cleaning, tuning and adjusting it gives a tool that is yours in a
way that no out of the box tool however good can ever be. I wonder how
many people each year are put off hand tools for life by the new plane
that won't cut or the new saw that leaves blisters. All people have iron
in their blood, so much better are those that have iron oxide instead.
Steve in Indy

Hi Steve & All,

This is not OT, so move on if you choose. It's specifically about
Steve's comment that, "All people have iron in their blood, so much
better are those who have iron oxide instead." A few weeks ago that
would have gone right past me without much thought, but some might
recall a tongue-in-cheek post of mine a while ago about putting my wife
in a zap tank to reduce the iron overload she'd been found to have in
her blood. At the time, I was thinking that iron in the blood would
naturally be in more of an oxide form than other, but maybe not? Anyway,
we didn't go the tank route. Instead, I'm sticking a needle in her belly
every day and hooking that up to a portable pumping device that forces
some sort of sludge into her that supposedly will absorb the iron and
pass it off thru her kidneys. The third day we did that, she had some
problems that lead to stopping for four days to be sure weren't side
effects. Docs seem pretty sure there's no connection and that she
probably had a mini-stroke instead. So we've now been back on the sludge
for three more days.

MORALS: Iron or iron oxide in the blood is not necessarily a good thing
and don't grow old.

Best Wishes,
Solomons Bob