Wow. Just wow.

Way back when in the early days of the List, I was enamored with such devices,
but never had the opportunity to purchase one. There was an MWTCA member in
Michigan around the same time that had all kinds of treadle stuff, including
some lovely lathes. There was an auction (sale?) when he passed but I knew it
would be too rich for my blood (and SWMBO's tolerance level for such
acquisitions). All that said, your photos did bring back those old longings, if
only for a few moments...

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: oldtools@g...  On Behalf Of Bill Webber via groups.io
Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2022 2:59 PM
To: oldtools@g...
Subject: [oldtools] New pursuits

GGs,

Some may remember the lathe I picked up last fall at Bud Brown's auction.  I
posted a description and pictures under a thread titled New-to-me lathe.  I
didn't know what I had at the time but a little research showed it to be a head
stock and sundry other parts from an early Bergeron Ornamental lathe from about
1795.  It was set up as more of a display gadget than an actual working lathe.
Historically significant but not in a usable configuration.

Pursuing the history of that lathe got me started down the path of these early
Ornamental Lathes.  With my recent downsizing and household move I'm developing
more of an interest in these lathes and have become less interested in my tool
focus of recent years. Long story short, I'm pursuing the purchase of two lathes
from a very knowledgeable aficionado, writer and ornamental lathe user. I expect
the purchase to take a while what with all the packing required, sorting of
shipping details, selection of appropriate shippers, etc.

In the mean time I thought I'd offer you gents another kind of tool porn.  Porn,
of course, is in the eye of the beholder, but I find these things have become
very appealing to me.  Anyway, one of the lathes is a small and early
Holtzapffel model from 1927. The second is a newer, more capable, historically
significant lathe by Evans from about 1890.  Both were manufactured in the U.K.

A complete description with history, inventory, and pictures is contained in
these two pdf files:

Holtzapffel SN 1355: http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/H1355.pdf

Evans SN 1288: http://billwebber.galootcentral.com/E1288.pdf