Vintage Toolboxes

Evening Folks, 

  I took a stroll around the local antique mall this afternoon and happened to find a few vintage toolboxes. I love these things, especially knowing they were purpose built by the craftsmen that needed them to specifically fit the tools he wanted to put in them. I wonder if two pre-industrialization tool boxes ever looked alike. I hope not. I've already blown my antique tool budget for a while, so I wasn't able to adopt one for myself. One of these days I'd like to bring one home. I'll keep sharing pics as I find them, though. 

  Take care, 

       Nick

$5 ebay Saw

Hi Guys!

  It's been a while since I've posted anything, this page of the blog is probably going to get a bit busier here in the near future.  I haven't done many projects because I'm still gathering the tools required for the items I want to build.  Well, with my tight budget and the number of tools I need, I decided to go "old-school".  I've been purchasing old and antique hand tools from the area junk stores and ebay and plan on refurbishing each back to usable condition.  I've always loved antiques and and hand-tools in general, so this is a "best of both worlds" and a "work with what you can" scenario.  That being said, the next few posts are going to be chronicling the steps I take to rehab the beautiful old tools and make them live again.  I am of firm belief that if it was made in the U.S.A before World War II, then it is probably of a higher quality than anything out of China today, and I think they still have a lot of use left in them.  I've never restored much of anything before, so I've been doing a lot of research on the subject.  I'm going to show all of the trial and error that I go through to get these tools back to usable condition, I'm not looking for museum pieces, just usable.

  I'll start off with some "before" pictures of an old Disston D-8 Skewback cross cut saw that I bought off of ebay.  It was advertised as being manufactured in the 1940s.  I really like the shape of the handle (or tote, I believe is the correct term) on this saw, the curves really make it eye catching.  There are some chips and nicks in the tote, but nothing that should keep it from being used, I don't think.  The plan is to disassemble the saw, sand the tote back down to raw wood and reseal it, clean the rust off the blade and polish the screws.  Like I said, it won't be "like-new" or fit for any museum, but it'll be a damn fine looking saw that'll still cut wood after 70 years!  I think that's saying something!

  Enjoy the pictures and check back soon for more!

     Thanks,

         -Nick

Here's my $5 ebay saw as delivered.  The tip of the blade was hanging out of the cardboard when it arrived!

         

Here's a good shot of the Distton Phila Medallion.