Old Tools

Italian Motors posted this photo of a valve spring compressor he just bought. He picked it up from an old timer who made it right after the big war when he was a teenager. Looks pretty good for a hand made item that's roughly seventy years old.

Here's one I made probably close to twenty years ago, I would guess. It's adjustable in reach but a little springy in use. Don't know if it'll get peddled off to someone who'll appreciate and use it or just get tossed in the scrap bin when I'm gone but I do find some comfort knowing that I was doing the same thing that some unknown gentlemen from England was doing a generation before me. I would opine that most of us tinkerers have a lot in common with the craftsmen that came before us. While there is a huge spectrum of tool makers and users out there today, I really don't think you can be a good craftsman without some respect and interest in those who were practicing their crafts back in their day. How else would you explain "old school" hot rods or woodworkers making Shaker furniture? Even if we're trying to duplicate an item from years earlier, we all put our own little spin on things. And every mechanic, regardless of his medium, always ends up with a bunch of little specialty tools and fixtures for making the job go faster.

I did a little lumberjacking over the weekend. My little chainsaw quit working as it was designed so I thought maybe using the old rusty Champion pattern crosscut saw might be the way to go. After I got it cleaned up and spent about two hours sharpening it and still had a ways to go, I realized that it was going to be more trouble than it was worth and borrowed a chainsaw. It ran, but the blade on it was as least as dull as the crosscut so I sprung for a new chain and got things knocked out PDQ. However, I would like to sharpen up the old saw so it's a user again. Since Surly has been farting around with saws, I've gotten interested in them a little more as well. Unfortunately, this old saw has not only been neglected but it was sharpened all wrong in the past.

Surly did send me a saw set to help that part of the job along. Probably what I need more than anything is the tool for jointing the saw. That would make things easier but a new Stihl chainsaw is $180.00 and would be, if not easier, certainly quicker. Just not the same sense of satisfaction as you get from dickin' with old tools, however.