Well, at the other end of the spectrum, I got a few of my great
grandfather Ihm's planes and one small square. The box was in our
cheese factory basement for several years and had the chisels and gouges
in old shirts, oiled and semi-sharp. The saws were wrecks, hammers a
mess of everything from blacksmithing to two veneer hammers that were
the best of the lot. There were commercial veneer inlays, like flowers
and various bluebells for borders. He'd worked at the Pullman car plant
for years. The ratty condition of the tools probably reflected their
care after his death in 1920.
The two stones were in oily wooden blocks, both very dished and both
broken in halves. The dish was more than a quarter inch. Years later I
used a surface grinder to flatten one of them, it worked very well. Dad
still used the other one for gouges but that was all. I still have
cleaned the planes a bit and sharpened them. They do cut very well. All
have his initials, WI for Wilhelm Ihm. From the looks of some of the
tools he worked on some very nice stuff with great care. His home was
his masterwork, which makes me think the tools got beat all to hell
after his death.
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