Long rambling message, you were warned.

So I went to an estate sale today....late

I didn't see the ad for the sale until about 10:00 am which meant it was going
to be after 11 before I could get there. It advertised a "massive farm, house
and tool sale".  The sale began at 9 and although I knew the really good stuff
would be gone I might be able to find some leftovers.
There were dozens of cars parked up and down both sides of the street for over a
city block.
I skipped the house and garage and headed for the two large barns. One barn was
lawn and farm equipment, tinkering projects, and scraps.

The second barn was about 30 x 50 and was this gentleman's shop. It was a
fantastic shop space. There were his production and hobby wood work projects:
step stools and dozens of wooden trains. 18 inch long wooden steam engine trains
with passenger cars and cabooses which were very well made with lots of detail.
I have to believe that everyone of his grand kids, nieces and nephews had train
sets made by him. Small furniture projects and silhouette animal shapes
everywhere.

Large industrial racks 4 foot deep, 8 foot tall full of lumber along the 50 ft
wall.  Lots of power tools, 2 Delta contractor saws with unifences at very
reasonable prices, every other power tool imaginable. Lots of hand tools, now
picked over. All of the chisels pictured in the ad were already gone, couple of
80's Disston saws left, hardware, but no brass screws. One off brand no. 5 sized
hand plane at triple the reasonable price. This guy had made many of the tools
he needed: buffers and sanders on small scale bench-top line shaft systems
which, because they looked old were priced astronomically.

His main woodworking bench was a traditional design with face and tail vise, 3
inches thick, 6 ft. Long and in fantastic shape $125. Unfortunately it was
marked sold. Way over priced old looking tools, and this fantastic bench at a
price which wouldn't buy one of the vises on it. I so wished I had known about
the sale earlier, I wouldn't have been able to get my wallet out of my pocket
fast enough for that bench.

All of this, a fantastic shop, all of his tools, all of the wood and it was all
for sale. I became very sad at the thought of it. I can only imagine all of the
wonderful items he made for friends and family, he was clearly very productive.
And it was all for sale. Not a single person in his family claimed his tools,
his lumber, his patterns. It was obvious by the items there that this wasn't
what was left after family took what they wanted, it was a complete and well
equipped shop. And I was sad at the thought. And I wondered what will become of
my shop someday? Will some ignorant estate sale company over price the wrong
things, and will decorators pick out things to shabbily paint? Even now, late in
the evening the thought of that sale saddens me...

And I am now more determined than ever to expose my GrandGit, and my nephews and
nieces and anyone else who seems remotely interested, to my shop my old tools
and how to make things...

I did pick up a few things: a couple of North Bros. Yankee spiral screw drivers
including a 30 A that I didn't have. A N.B. Yankee 15 ratcheting screwdriver in
the 2" size, 4 really nice wooden handle screw drivers in the heavy duty Mac
Tools style, some gimlet bits for my brace(s) and a fine honing stone.  A cast
iron file handle-- I really like those.

I can't seem to pass up Yankee push drills or ratcheting screwdrivers, I am
afraid I am going to have to work on a set


Brent A Kinsey
Brentpmed@c...