"A good buy or What"

[Lockstocknbarrel]

Walked into the local second-hand tool shop a couple of weeks ago and hanging up out of sight were these two clamps the owner said had been there for a while, they had Asian clamps sitting in front hiding these poor lonely babies.
12 inch deep X 12 Wide.
Cost $37.50usd the owners name is stamped into the sides, it is A C Thornton, I decided to look up the local telephone directory and there was only 1 name with those initials, and I wondered why someone would sell such professionally home-made clamps.................What was the background had they been stolen......
Mr Thornton was a very pleasant gentleman in his retirement years and had decided to sell his workshop over a year ago to the shop concerned.

I'm now a very happy chap with some serious clampability....................
Regards Beagles

 

[steamer]

Yes! it is !

It is especially nice that you took the time to find Mr. Thornton. That was a class thing to do on your part :bow:

A karma for you

Have Mr Thornton look us up...bet he'd appreciate it.

Dave

 

[barney_leadhead]

What better way to preserve the heritage of these tools than by using them.

I have a few hand made measuring tools given to me by local chap 'KS' many years ago who passed them on to me as he knew that I was an Engineer.
He was time-served and had spent a lifetime at a local brickworks (at one time the largest in the world) in their vast engineering department.
Up until recently these tools were still in storage at my parents house and when I picked them up a few weeks ago my mother mentioned in passing 'Oh I meant to let you know that KS had passed on earlier this week'
Now my mother did not know that I had chosen to pick those tools up that day and would have forgotten that he had ever given them to me, yet her jaw dropped when I opened the box to reveal several items bearing the initial 'KS"... just a little strange I thought.

 

[Swede]

I wonder if these are Journeyman tools, in that early in a career, a mchinist or toolmaker would often execute something like this as part of becoming accredited, or acknowledged as accomplished. They are usually lovingly made, and most have the maker's name on them.

This isn't done so much anymore. My father used to roam flea markets, and he'd pick up on items like these which are immediately recognizable as being 1-off and specialized. It's amazing how often they are valued so cheaply, because the owners didn't know that they are literally a form of Americana folk art.

In my collection, I've got a variety of them... things like precision insert vises, assorted trammels, scribes, and my favorite is a solid multi-hexagonal miniature die holder... picture a piece of honeycomb sliced along one row. The user had a series of tiny dies from 2-56 to 10-32 in the row, and it was once beautifully color casehardened.

I need to take some pictures.

 

[IronHorse]

All my "good" tools have someone else's name stamped on them, but I never thought to track them down, although it sounds like a neat thing to do. A few years ago I found a local guy that sells used machine tools, usually at flee markets. I asked him if these tools are from machinists who had retired, and he said yes some of them, but sadly, most where from young guys that had decided to get out of the industry. Usually I would prefer to buy a used name brand tool over an import if I can find it.


IronHorse