Antique Tools

A buyer's guide to many you can use

by Robert Sutter

The latest tool catalog has come in tions raises prices, and they are aware dling likewise. But eschew the item
the mail, so you settle down with the that old tools have recently been touted encrusted with rust. It won't clean satis-
"wishing book" in eager anticipation. as preeminently collectible. Dealers factorily no matter the effort, and the
But my oh my, those prices: sixteen also know the worth of old tools on the metal will bear pit marks and deep-
dollars for a saw, twenty-two for a current market, so don't expect to find seated rust pockets for evermore. While
brace, sixty for a plough plane. It sure an antique dealer who doesn't know
puts a damper on your ardor to fill your what he has in that box of rusty old
shop with all those wonderful-looking tools lying half out of sight under the
objects in the pages of that catalog dropleaf table in the back of the store.
open across your knees. He knows, and he put that box where it
Well, how do you go about getting is on purpose.
your heart's desire while preserving as Okay, let's assume that in spite of
much of your bank account as possible? my admonitions you decide you're
One way is to budget a realistic sum of going to look around for some old
money for your basic tools and then tools. What can you expect to find and
make additions only as the need arises. what will the results of your search cost?
Buy the best you can get in the way of I'll try to answer those questions from
edge tools and saws. If you must, you experience garnered in fifteen years of
can acquire inexpensive yet less soul- collecting and over thirty of buying
satisfying hammers, pliers, screwdriv- tools for my workshop.
ers, files, etc. at the local hardware
store. Beware of special house brands Braces
and bargains, though; you only get
what you pay for. Shop carefully and The first braces were naturally form-
compare with your wishing book; you ed tree limbs of the proper shape. Next
may find that a small price difference came factory-shaped wooden braces
will procure a more trustworthy item with brass reinforcement plates. Such
than the bargain bucket at the local items are in the seventy to one-
hardware emporium. hundred-fifty-dollar classmore if
Another way to build your journey- unique. Metal braces with rudimentary
man's kit is the antique tool route. screw chucks were in use side by side
There is certainly a big kick to be gotten with wooden ones. Later on in the 19th
out of finding a half dozen peachy century, and early in the 20th, braces
chisels at the back of the antique shop with universal shell chucks and ratchet
for just two dollars apiece. That sort of sweeps began to be manufactured.
bargain may be easy on the budget, but Stanley braces from 1900 on can often
old isn't necessarily good, and if they be found with ten to fifteen-dollar
turn out to be made of Swiss cheese, price tags, which, if sound, will func-
you can't exchange them. Realize that tion perfectly today. Check the chuck
when searching for old tools you to be sure it closes all the way and is
compete with the tool collector and concentric. See that the wooden parts
that chances are he knows a lot more are not split and that the metal is bright
about the tricky business of buying under the dirt. If so, you've got a
antique tools than you do. usable tool for a reasonable price.
Recognize, too, that sellers of A word about rusty tools here. A lit-
antiques keep informed about trends in tle rust easily scraped away to expose
their field. They know that competi- bright metal is okay and can be cleaned
tion between collectors for new acquisi- up. Discoloration due to use and han-
 dles, for the only way to sharpen them
is to remove the handle. To use an adze
requires a very sharp edge on the adze
and a very sharp skill on your part.
Have someone who knows show you
how to use it, and then practice on
scrap timber before working on any-
thing important. Watch out for your
toes as the tool is swung towards them.

Drawknives, etc.

Another archaic but useful tool is the

drawknife. Anyone who has visited one
of the restoration villages has undoubt-
edly seen a drawknife in use or at rest
on a shaving bench. For quick shaping
of round and curved work, this tool is
hard to beat. Since the depth of cut is
dependent on how the tool is held
relative to the work, some practice is re-
merely unsightly in some cases, such this country, even though still avail- quired to cut a long, uniform shaving.
pits and pockets on edge tools affect the able in most of Europe. Should you There is also an element of risk in pul-
edge-holding ability of the tool. decide you can't live without one, you ling a large, sharp knife towards your
will have to purchase it as an antique. stomach. Safer and more easily con-
Saws The Collins Axe Company made adzes trolled is the spokeshave which operates
out of good steel with proper balance on the same general principle as the
You may find some good, usable old until a few years ago. They were jap- drawknife but has the mechanics of a
saws, but I doubt it. Old, all-steel saws anned black and sold without handles, plane to control the cut. Spokeshaves
are often temptingly priced since they as were all adzes, since the handle is a come in brass, iron or wood bodies with
are not very popular with collectors, matter of individual design. You can straight, convex, concave, or rounded
who prefer frame and turning saws. In often find a good, quite new Collins soles. Sometimes two differently
years gone by, a craftsman bought a saw adze head lying about for perhaps eight shaped soles, each with its own blade,
and used it until it was worn out from to fifteen dollars. Those that have were mounted side by side in a single
repeated sharpening and setting. He re- handles and are older will be more ex- handle. New spokeshaves are easily ob-
placed broken handles and rivets as pensive. By the way, adze heads are tained from purveyors of fine tools
they were needed for the steel saw never permanently fixed to their han- through their catalogs or as antiques.
handles. When the saw was past using,
it was discardedfor you to pick up.
Therefore resist the temptation to buy
an old saw even though it costs but
three or four dollars. Purchase the high-
est grade new one you can and take care
of it. It will serve you well just as the
four-dollar relic served its owner when
it was shiny and fresh from the store.

Adzes

The adze is one of the oldest tools in

the woodworker's kit. Paleolithic speci-
mens are to be seen in museums, but
today the adze turns up more often in
crossword puzzles than in real life. For
the unfamiliar it is a sort of mashie-
niblick axe with an oddly curved
handle. An adze is a smoothing and
shaping tool used for finishing large
areas of wood such as floors and beams
as well as for all sorts of chores in ship-
yards. The adze is no longer a common
item on the shelf of hardware stores in
Prices run from six or seven dollars for a
modern spokeshave to twenty dollars
for 19th century iron ones. Wooden
shaves were commonly made out of
beech or box woods, but occasionally
you will see ebony or cherry or other
fine cabinet woods used. Beware of
wooden spokeshaves as the throat wears
easily and makes them difficult to set.
Because of this deficiency, many
wooden specimens have brass or even
ivory set into the throat to provide a
hard, less easily worn surface. Towards
the end of the 19th century, Stanley
and others produced a chamfering
spokeshave which is most useful and
worth some hunting about for.
Another branch of this large and
useful family of tools is the scratch stock
or universal hand header. It is really a
scraper of sorts with handles like a
spokeshave. The hand header has a thin edge paring chisels in several grades, art. Good steel, well forged and proper-
steel blade with a shaped edge held long and strong hooped chisels, in- ly heat-treated to be hard at the edge
almost vertically to the plane of the cannel gouges and mortise chisels. and tough in the body and tang is what
work piece. When pulled, the blade Prices ranged from under four dollars to you will be seeking, often in vain, in
scrapes a bead or other shape out of the over ten. Antique chisels are available modern tools.
wood. A scratch stock will cut moulded in all the variety of the newer ones plus Chisels are really the only case in tool
edges on curves, and works well regard- others long out of production such as acquiring where I would suggest
less of grain direction or complexity. slicks, framing, and corner chisels. antique over new because the older
Since it scrapes, there is practically no Except for slicks and corner chisels, not handmade tools are more likely to have
tendency to tear the wood. Unfortu- many collectors are interested, so prices the qualities required. Of course,
nately, this tool can now be found only vary from under a dollar to ten or shapes and sizes must be found one by
as an antique. twelve dollars, with exceptions running one, and often just what you need is
up in the twenty-five to fifty-dollar unavailable, but seek out the old steel
Chisels range. and you'll likely have a winner. Many
Framing, corner, and hooped chisels older chisels have inlaid edges, a piece
There are more varieties of chisels are for pounding on as are mortise of very hard, brittle steel for the edge
than there are herring dishes in Fin- chisels. Paring chisels, in-cannel welded onto a softer, tougher steel
land. In one catalog I counted twenty gouges, and slicks are for pushing. The shank. Buy old chisels with as much
flat carving chisels and one hundred latter will take a razor edge while the intact blade and inlay as possible.
and thirty gouge shapes, fishtails, former (somewhat softer to withstand Picturesque, well-worn, short-bladed
allonge fishtails, spoon, and backbent the stresses of being pounded) take a tools are useless because they are
chisels. In addition there were bevel- little coarser edge. Chisel making is an probably ground back past the hard-
ened portion at the business end of the
blade. Tools by Buck Brothers, Barton,
Isaac Greaves, Wm. Butcher, Underbill
Edge Tool Co., and many Sheffield,
England, companies are pretty sure to
be of high quality. Don't let the words
"cast steel" confuse you. The blades
weren't cast, for cast steel in the
19th-century context refers only to a
type of tool steel of high quality.
For those woodworkers who are
always looking for the best tool to do
the best job, there is an aesthetic
quality to tools used by generations of
craftsmen before our time which is as
satisfying as the keen edge or
comfortable fit of a new tool. Perhaps it
is justification enough for the search. I
often think so.