Yesterday afternoon, I went over to my great-aunt's house - my grandmother's
sister on my mom's side.  My aunt's dementia recently got worse and she
couldn't live in the house alone anymore. So she's at a facility for people
suffering my similar impairments.  My grandmother at 91 is the oldest of 4 -
2 daughters and 2 sons.  My great-aunt is 90 and the 2 brothers have passed
away in the past few years.  My aunt lived in the house since she was 3 and
assumed ownership of the house when he father passed away in 1968.  He and
his wife were originally from Austria-Poland and he was a sheet metal worker
in Westfield, MA.  My aunt never got married and was somewhat of a hoarder,
but she and her father took care of things.

My mom is now going through the house sorting through everything to sell.
My 21 yr old daughter went through some of the vintage clothing - hats,
dresses, gloves, - while I went down into the basement to look at tools.
One of my great uncles had already taken a tool chest and some woodworking
tools years ago.  My uncle ended up with the tool chest after the
great-uncle passed away and we're not sure what happened to all the tools
that had been in it.  So I wasn't sure what to expect in the basement other
than lots of dust and dirt and stuff.  My mom pointed out a few saws hanging
up and a possible tool chest in the corner under some boxes.  I started off
at a table with some old electric grinding wheels and worked my way over to
the tools chests. Most of the items were for his metal work and I left a lot
of rusty items.  Here are the highlights of things I brought home

- A nice hand-cranked grinding wheel - a Carborundum Co. Niagara No 3 that
spins very smoothly.  It just needs some cleaning up from 40-50 years of
dust and grime.
- Saws - A couple panel saws - no etches on first inspections.  I thought I
had a few compass saws, but one has Nail Cutting on the blade and both
blades are much thicker than normal compass saws.  A couple of old hack
saws.  And 2 36" saw blades (about 1-2 inches wide) with holes at the ends.
The teeth look like rip teeth, so I'm going to keep them for a frame saw.
- A Morrill Apex Special saw set.
- A nice Stanley No 68 folding rule in pretty good shape.
- A handful of dividers and some Starrett rulers from combo squares.
- Some hardware, screws, nails including some copper nails, in cigar boxes.
Left a bunch of bolts and such in bunch of other cigar boxes.
 
Pix here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/BLambertJr/RoddenTools?authuser=0&feat=directli
nk

The tool chest and some smaller tool boxes were definitely for his metal
work.  The items in the tool chest were well preserved.  Even found a Sheet
Metal periodical from 1920 in there with some of his patterns and 2 books
from the International Correspondence School copyrighted in 1906 to help him
with his metal pattern work.  I left these items and a lot of other stuff in
case the other relatives want them.  But if they don't I may pick out some
more items.

Yesterday morning I took my 6 yr old daughter fishing with my dad and she
caught her first 2 fish.  She still reminds me how we didn't catch anything
the last time I took her fishing last year, so the morning was a definite
success.  And I would say the afternoon was a success too, at least for me!
Now it's time to clean up the tools.

Bruce Lambert
Leominster, MA

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.  - New England proverb

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