Last Of The Series
Sorry about taking so long on these but there are quite a few items to work through and the rest of life (sitting grandsons, mowing the grass, etc.) seems to happen. I struggled on whether to repaint the case or simply clean it and make it more functional. I elected to simply clean it, remove or add any hardware as necessary to make it better able to store the tools, and apply a light coat of shellac. I wanted to preserve the notations scribbled by previous owners to help with maintaining the history. I found the original owner’s initials stamped into the case and it matches the markings found on many of the tools.
One thing that had me puzzled was an illegible thin metal plate prominently tacked inside the box. I originally thought that it might be a manufacture plate that that didn’t make sense with the other evidence of the case having been made by the craftsman. Not being able to read the rusted plate and given the age of the tools, I decided it originally could have been a tintype picture of the craftsman’s wife or family.
The tools are pretty well done now, sharpened and ready to work, with the exceptions that the brace bits are not sharpened, I need to find a thumbscrew for the fret saw and I have one chisel with a bad crack that may not be repairable. I may elect to re-mouth one or two planes at some point even though them are performing ell at the moment. I didn’t do before-and-after photos of all of the individual items because this thread would have been way too long. Here are some additional group photos, some before but most after, and this will be the last posting for this thread unless anyone has any questions. Ignore the new tools in the background.
Have fun
