for the first time in a long while i've completed something, though not 
a woodworking project, per se.

after seeing bad andy's post about his grandfather's tools i went under 
my bench and pulled out my grandfather's goodell-pratt 1306A miter box, 
which was dirty, dusty, and rusty, making it difficult to use.  i'd 
been somewhat apprehensive about taking it apart, knowing my track 
record of rebuilding things so they are back together and in spec is 
largely centered on cars and construction/rebuilding.  oh, and 
handplanes, but those aren't exactly rocket science.  my primary fear 
was i'd take a well-functioning, if dirty and rusty, miter box that 
made wonderful cuts 90deg in both planes and turn it into a heavy 
toestubber i felt bad about having around the shop but, because it was 
from my grandfather, couldn't get rid of.

with grandpa's admonition of "work carefully, but quick" in my head, i 
carefully took off the bolts, made sure they were easily identifiable, 
removed the back plates, the swinging/sliding levers, and the end 
attachments, staring at each piece for a while before 
unscrewing/detaching/removing it.  then a quick wash with a green 
scrubby, and into the citric acid bath.  i did the parts in stages, so 
i would never have too many to spend a couple of hours on (took me six 
hours total over three nights to strip the box down to its frame, clean 
each part down to rust/nickel/enamel, and once done in the citric acid 
- a 24 hour process, unless parts were still rusty coming out - to heat 
them to 200F for 20 minutes to make sure they were dry prior to putting 
on a coat of butcher's wax, which the heat turned melty and able to get 
into crevices).

by last night i had a pile of parts that were clean, shiny, and 
protected by a layer of wax.  some of the red enamel from the bed 
risers came off, and lots of the black enamel came off the rest of the 
box during the process.  unfortunate, but unavoidable; the enamel was 
in fairly poor shape already, and the cleaning and acid bath seriously 
hastened its demise.  at some point i'll take it back apart and use 
engine enamel baked in the oven to bring it back to looking new.  one 
cool thing i found out was the date of manufacture, or so i think, of 
this box, or at least its swing arm components.  the numbers "7 21 35" 
are stamped on the side of the swinging lever, and they're spaced so i 
believe they indicate a date, around which the miter box was built.

and that's very cool, because now it makes me think it was my great 
grandfather who bought the tool, then gave it to my grandfather when he 
left for california from philadelphia; my grandfather was playing with 
clyde lucas in 1935, living in new york, and about to be married, but 
wouldn't be a homeowner for another seven years.  it would have come 
west with them in '42, packed in the chrysler with his horns, the rest 
of the household goods, my grandmother, and my infant dad.  and it's an 
absolute certainty it was the miter box my great grandfather used in 
the late 40s, when he came to visit, to build an octagonally-shaped 
window in my grandfather's new den/music room.  my guess is that box 
cut all the trim, and any square board ends, that went into that den...

so you can imagine my thrill when, after i'd put it all back together, 
LPS 1 on many screws for lubrication, cleaned bearings, and butcher's 
wax on just about everything else, everything snug but not overtorqued, 
i put a piece of pine from a pallet on the deck and slid home the ken 
greenberg-sharpened disston backsaw (30"x6") that belongs to the box, 
and cut it through (like buttah).  thrill tinged with apprehension, 
until i took my engineer's square and tested the truth of both 
directions...it was spot on across the board, and within a gnat's leg 
hair of the vertical 90deg.

my grandfather taught me how to work with my hands.  i like to think he 
lives on in them, helping me with everything.  certainly his spirit is 
caught in this miter box, and knowing it started with my great 
grandfather makes my using it even richer.  getting it apart and back 
together:  did i say pride?  oh, yeah.

pictures to follow.  i couldn't find the digital camera last midnight.

best,
bill
felton, ca

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Hi Bill,

Nice post.  I know a little about that sort of pride, or maybe just the 
warm feeling of  a connection.  I live in the house my grandfather built as 
a wedding present for my grandmother in 1920.  In the early 1950's my mum 
and dad lived in the back bedroom while my dad and my grand-father built 
the house I grew up in across the river.  I have a sneaking suspicion that 
my roots (that would be a double entendre joke/pun in Oz, I'm not sure 
about the US) lie in that back room, now my study/junk-room.

The house was sold out of the family in 1967 after my grandfather died, I 
bought it back in 1983 and promptly moved back my grandfather's tools and 
his timber stash from my parental home where they had been roosting against 
the day they would be restored to their rightful place.  Along the way I 
found a few of my great-grandfather's tools in Dad's workshop, brought to 
Tasmania  from Essex in 1890 by my great-grandfather (He was a wheelwright).

My partner and I are about to renovate the house.  Its not a stately 
mansion on acreage, just a workingman's cottage with a pretty nice view 
over the city and harbour.  All of the advice we have is that it would be 
cheaper to sell it "as is" and move to a "modern" house, or alternatively 
to demolish the present house, clear the lot and start again.  No way.  By 
the time we finish the house will look pretty much the same from the 
outside, albeit it the plumbing and kitchen etc will have warped forward 
100 years.  Pride and sentiment may be costly, but when I lie in bed 
thinking about what we plan to do I remember the saying about the man who 
knew the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Regards,

Tony B
Hobart, Tasmania

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OldTools is a mailing list catering to the interests of hand tool
aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history, usage, 
value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of 
traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools. 

To read the FAQ, unsubscribe, or change email options, use the web 
interface at:     http://www.brendlers.net/oldtools/oldtools.html

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the pictures are up, on a page that's fast becoming devoted to the "all 
steel" miter box(es):
http://members.cruzio.com/~cikasper/gpa/gpastools.html

most of the pictures are before and after.  i've also worked on the 
text to reflect the information i've learned over the past couple of 
weeks, and to give credit where it's due.

best,
bill
felton, ca

On Sep 21, 2005, at 9:41 AM, Bill Kasper wrote:
> pictures to follow.  i couldn't find the digital camera last midnight.

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OldTools is a mailing list catering to the interests of hand tool
aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history, usage, 
value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of 
traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools. 

To read the FAQ, unsubscribe, or change email options, use the web 
interface at:     http://www.brendlers.net/oldtools/oldtools.html

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On Thursday 22 September 2005 14:48, Bill Kasper wrote:
> http://members.cruzio.com/~cikasper/gpa/gpastools.html

Bill,

That's good info. I used to have a house in Van Nuys that was built in '53. 
Homes were a lot different then...;-)

I wonder if you could tell me something. You were there when Omi gave me the 
Miller Falls miter (thanks Omi if you're reading this!;-). I was trying to 
figure out how to calibrate the blade. Do you or someone else know how to do 
that. I saw some screws, but wasn't sure how to alter the blade tilt. I 
figure there must be some way of doing that, just wasn't sure.

-- 

Alan DuBoff
Software Orchestration
GPG: 1024D/B7A9EBEE 5E00 57CD 5336 5E0B 288B 4126 0D49 0D99 B7A9 EBEE

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OldTools is a mailing list catering to the interests of hand tool
aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history, usage, 
value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of 
traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools. 

To read the FAQ, unsubscribe, or change email options, use the web 
interface at:     http://www.brendlers.net/oldtools/oldtools.html

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Tony said:

> My partner and I are about to renovate the house.  Its not a 
> stately mansion on acreage, just a workingman's cottage with 
> a pretty nice view over the city and harbour.  

Having been the recipient of gracious hospitality extended by Tony and his
lovely wife in said house, I can say that "pretty nice view" may well
qualify for Best Understatement of the Year awards.

Chuck Myers, in rainy western PA, relishing fond memories of a wonderful
weekend spent in the Tasmanian district of Paradise.

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OldTools is a mailing list catering to the interests of hand tool
aficionados, both collectors and users, to discuss the history, usage, 
value, location, availability, collectibility, and restoration of 
traditional handtools, especially woodworking tools. 

To read the FAQ, unsubscribe, or change email options, use the web 
interface at:     http://www.brendlers.net/oldtools/oldtools.html

OldTools Archive: http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswingle/archive/