People ask me how did I become interested in old tools, and so it made me think how did I?

I can remember when serving my apprenticeship during the late 1980;s that the tools at that time that interested me were tools that were relatively new to the market like Estwing hammers and axes, I think I had planes by Stanley, a block plane, number 4 and a number 6 that I never really used other than shooting the edges of doors, I had a set of Marple’s shatterproof chisels and I remember making my own oil stone box out of a piece of teak, as at the time all my foremen told me that teak was the best wood to soak in the oil. I think the oldest tool I had in my box and I still have this, is a set of goscut’s used for laminate cutting, probably one tool I will never give away although not worth any value but just hard to get hold of.

Whilst serving my apprenticeship I spent some time in the workshop, were the benchands were old school and every Friday at 3pm they called this sharpening hour as in those days 4pm was end of the week. Some of these benchhands had what I now now as the likes of infill planes and wooden handle chisels and hammers and at that time it never crossed my mind that they would become anything of value, as I prized my modern day Stanley planes.

Now looking back some 20 years later I realise how beautifully made some of these tools were, and I now look at some of these tools as pieces of art more than tools, I would much rather have a tool made of rosewood and brass on display as an ornament than some cut glass or china that some people would normally wish to look at, even in our living room we have an old cabinetmakers tool chest with nice interior fitted drawers. I bought this chest full of tools from a gentleman who had served his full working life in Camel Laird ship yard, the chest was pine painted black (this is what they did), we had the chest dipped and stripped it back down to its bare pine finish, the chest is dovetailed but rather crudely as they would not have been seen once painted, but what character it holds, once the stripping had dried out we re-finished with Danish oil and then applied wax and wow what a talking point it has made to anyone visiting, if only the old man was still around and could now see something he had made to hold all his tools has now been turned into a piece of furniture.

I travel the full length of the UK looking for the best quality tools, so you don’t have too, if you are looking for anything in particular drop me a line as I don’t pick all the tools up I view only what I see as being quality and sought after tools. I also have a large selection of stock not advertised so may be worth asking the question.

Anyway I would like to thank you for visiting my site and I believe you will find something of interest whether it be for use, display or collectable, Im sure theres something here for you all alike.

Take a look at my blog page as over time I’m sure there will be talking points for you all to join in with.

best regards Gary