Rust Hunting in Georgia 2011.11.06

I hit the aftermath of a huge tool sale - sounds like the guy just picked up everything he could find and then left it to his widow to deal with (hopefully the same won't happen to me!). In any case, the sale started on Thursday so by the time I hit it Saturday morning, most of the better items were gone. Being the consummate bottom-feeder I still managed to find a few items - I spent a little over $30 for everything (it was discounted being the last day, plus I got some off for buying so much). Many of these items were marked $1 with I think $3 being the top price I paid (less discount).

First up a saw jointer, some new Stihl chainsaw blade files and a holder for same.

Next are some of my favorite "vixen" cut files:

And then some later Buck Chisels (they look crappy but I cleaned one up - stained but not pitted), a tiny press, brick chisel and a tap handle:

Here's a group of handled tools, an awl, dental pic, flat-blades for a brace, Marples driver, putty knife, some sharpening stones and a couple of utility knives (sucker for those - seems you can never find one when you need one):

A whole slew of replacement hammer handles, mostly in hickory or ash:

4 small cross-pein or ball-pein hammers (red-handled one marked Plumb):

A bunch of micro-Pony clamps:

A Starrett Horizontal Gage Holding Rod in box and a Starrett 6" rule with cover (incidentally, someone stole an expensive micrometer from the sale):

Here's a close-up of the saw jointer - marked Disston:

And that tiny press (like to call it an arbor press but I think it's for pressing circuit pins - in any case too "cute" to pass up):

The tap handle is marked "Morse" and "Made in USA"

And here are some detail shots:

Guess that about wraps it up - there were still a lot of tools at the sale - mostly junk or stuff I already had a lot of - One very decent Stanley #12 scraper with rosewood handles for $20 (decent deal) but it was missing the scraper blade.

-- John

Rust Hunting in Georgia - July 24, 2011

I realized today that I hadn't posted about my latest finds - and further that it had been a few weeks. As I've mentioned previously, the new job has most of my attention - it's going quite well. I originally was hired on a 6 month contract but they gave me an offer 2 weeks in, so starting the third week I became a regular, salaried employee. In any case, these are the tools I picked up the weekend of July 24th. I stopped at two sales (actually one estate sale and then my friend John once again called me about some files he saw at one of our favorite junk stores - managed to find a couple of other things there as well).

I'm pretty much a sucker for packaged old items - these files (mostly unused) are a good example. One of the boxes had a single file and some have some surface rust - however I'm still glad to have them.

Also found was this Irwin adjustable auger that had an extra vinyl wrapped auger with it - the latter had extra blades.

As seen in this photo:

I also picked up that Stanley "D" chisel that's not too bad. The Estwing mason's hammer was bought for a buck at the second sale.

As were the Stanley "Yankee" style screwdriver and the Snap-On wrench. I also picked up the nice drop-light, as the plastic versions I own always melt around the bulb - this one is heavy-duty.

Love these file boxes (I guess that officially makes me a "collector") - and here's some close-ups of the other tools:

This is the first metal handled square I've actually purchased, as I prefer wood-handles, especially rosewood, but I figured this one will still come in handy in the shop and will live near my drill-press.

That wraps up the week of the 24th - I picked up some amazing items just this past weekend - those photos soon.

-- John