The thread on letting the season begin hits home a bit here, as this
turned out to be the first interesting acquisition weekend. Easter is
past, the weather is around 80F, got all the seeds planted for April
already, so what is there to do but a bit o'rust hunting?

Yesterday was pretty scary good - Out in a shed on the back of someone's
property I found a good number of old tools looking for a new home. I'm
pretty picky these days, but after Ralph's shaker box class I'm always
on the lookout for more hand-cranked grinders to convert into sanding
machines. Found one, plus a complete set of snecked plough plane irons,
plus a really nice outcannel gouge in a size I didn't have, plus a
larger ball pein hammer to replace the one I kind of destroyed during
the Shepherd Tool class. Maybe some other stuff in the pile - it's all a
blur. Ten bucks, eh? Sounds fair. Found some things in the pile as I was
picking it up that I had not mentioned as I was putting it all down, so
forced the poor woman to take a couple of extra dollars as an offering
to the tool gods.

Today I had decided to pass up the PAST meet in Spreckels for the first
time in years, fuel prices being "a lot" these days. Instead I had
agreed to spend two hours at Woodcraft talking about hand planes to
anyone who wanted to know more about the subject. Probably stayed three
just for fun. But at the outside tool swap I picked up a 3/8 inch
pigsticker mortise chisel. I've been looking for one of these for a long
time, and even managed to not find one in England a couple of years ago.
Instead I find one two miles from home for another ten buck outlay.

This one is marked Brades Co Cast Steel. A quick web search turns up a
little info (19th century) but not much more. So a little help from you
chisel knowledgeable folks, if you please. Probably English - looks like
all my other pigstickers in this respect. Do we have dates and working
location available?

TIA, Ken

Ken Greenberg (ken@c...) 667 Brush Creek Rd., Santa Rosa, CA 95404
http://www.calast.com/personal/ken/wood.htm Visit the oldtools book list
at http://www.calast.com/personal/ken/booklist.htm

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