On Oct 18, 2005, at 11:36 AM, Karl Rookey wrote:
> The problem, perhaps is a cultural belief that new is better --
> perhaps the antithesis of our galootish understanding to the contrary.
> But the infection is there, and understandable: imagine two identical
> era Stanley #1s. One has a blade "sharpened" to the profile of a
> ball-point pen and patina that occasionaly crosses the line into rust
> (though no pitting): a fine example of the #1 but definately mis-tuned
> and then neglected. The other in what might be called "new-in-box"
> condition. You are allowed to have only one of them: which will you
> choose? And once you've chosen it, will you tune it for use or build a
> shrine?
>

I will probably get stepped on for this, but I have always had the 
feeling that tool "collectors" are actually in the investment business. 
They want pristine or near pristine tools which will appreciate in 
value.  And so their desire for tools is primarily value driven. That 
is where the confusion comes into play.

If your interest is in the value (or price) of the tool, then you will 
worry about "overcleaning" and suchlike.

If your interest is in the tool alone, and its utility to you, then you 
have no (or little) concern for the retail value. You just want a good 
looking tool that will do what you want it to do. I am in this 
category.

As I have said before, I try to buy tools a cheaply as possible, and 
therefore the tools I find are usually in poor condition.  Not always, 
sometimes I get something nice. The nice stuff I don't do much to.  
There is no need.  But the stuff in poor condition wouldn't go to a 
collector anyway. It is a user.  And it is MY user.  And I will do to 
it whatever pleases me. I enjoy the challenge and the process of 
reworking stuff that everybody else has given up on.

Some of my tools will appear overcleaned to many of you.  But you 
didn't see them before I did my thing to them. If you had seen them in 
the condition I found them, you might not have bothered to bring them 
back to life, thinking it would be way too much work.

I think I have done a service to our community by bringing these dead 
tools back to life. I do not deny that there is a possibility that 
there are people who might overclean a tool which doesn't need it. But 
I think we greatly overestimate their number. I don't worry about them 
at all. Tools are no different than any other commodity.  You buy it, 
it is yours, and you can do anything you want to it. If you destroy the 
value, then you learn from that.

Jim Thompson, the old millrat in Riverside, CA.

------------------------------------------------------------------------