Old tools received

The local paper's classified ads come out every Saturday, as a supplemental insert called ''The Weekend Shopper'' (or, as I like to call it ''The Weakened Shopper''). I always browse the Musical Instruments and Tools sections, hoping for bargains -- hopefully, bargains that are on my side of town.

Saturday the 8th (of July) had a posting for an ''old wooden toolbox, suitable for carpenter'' for ten bucks, that was just two neighborhoods away. I went and checked it out. Turned out be be a very nice older gentleman who was selling off most of his tools -- apparently, had been selling them off in bits and pieces over the last few weeks.

He had been a tradesman in England, and then moved to Australia in the mid-1960s. The toolbox he had built himself, I think when he was apprenticing in the early 1960s.

Seeing my interest, he gave me a good deal: AU$3 for a trysquare with brass fittings; AU$15 for a backsaw that had just been sharpened [he used to sharpen his own saws, but his eyes are getting to weak to sharpen the smaller-toothed saws]; about AU$20 for a brace and bit set, including 36 tradesman-quality bits [I already own two braces, but only one auger bit]; a two-speed breast drill; and just a lot of miscellanea. (note: US prices are about 3/4 of the Aussie prices; so AU$15 is about US$12.) I asked him to sign the inside of the toolbox and the wooden box o' bits (which he had also made) -- which amused him, but he obligeded.

The whole pile (pictured) for AU$65. As he put it, none of his family would know what to do with it.

He's thinking about selling off his house -- it's getting too much for him to maintain -- and moving to an apartment. If and when he does, he'll give me a call (he took down my phone number) and sell me his workbench. He also has some misc. lumber under the house that he'd like to see go to a good home.


--GG