Old Screws, ETC.

[EricU]

my brother keeps mentioning he wants some of my dad's tools.  My dad had moved on from handtools, and my stepbrother had first shot, so a lot of stuff was already gone before I got to it.  Back to my brother, I thought about sending him a batch of tools that didn't belong to my dad and telling him that they did.  My dad was a very practical guy wrt tools, not much collector stuff.  I think the nicest hand tool he had was his brace, which has rosewood handles.  I think I got that, in any event, I have one just like it. Dad used the brace a lot unit sometime in the '70s when he got a 1/2" electric drill to take its place.

[Bill Wilson]

Oh I am so glad to hear there are so many others who accumulate old, junk hardware. I come by it naturally though. My Dad was notorious for stuff like that and he taught me well. His basement shop got flooded in 1995. I helped him clean it out and it practically broke his heart to throw away all the old hardware, broken fixtures, junk odds & ends he had collected over the years. I find myself doing the same thing now. Dad worked in a lot of old buildings, so he had lots more opportunities to bring stuff home, but I can't throw anything out without looking it over to see if I can scavenge anything useful off of it. There's stuff tucked away in the deep, dark recesses of my shop that I've had for almost 40 years. I keep saying I need to do a major clean-up, but somehow I end up just accumulating more.

[Stwood_]

Well, as some old timer said long ago, waste not, want not.

[EricU]

think of it this way Bill, you could accomplish a lot more interesting things in the time it takes to sort through old hardware. Nowadays I try to get it in the scrap bin as soon as I remove it from something.  

My wife's uncle was an electrician, and he never threw anything away from any of his jobs.  And he bought useful looking electrical parts at auctions.  Lots of obsolete stuff. It took 6 semi trucks to empty his basement.  Family lucked out, and someone bought it for a decent chunk of change and removed it all.  This uncle kept the good stuff by the stairs, and I guess the buyer didn't look too far.  At one time, I was on a course to beat his record, but I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff.  I'm trying to keep only quality junk, not junky junk.

[Herb G]

Don't feel bad Mike. I inherited my Dad's hardware too.
He kept his in cigar boxes. I have probably 15-20 of them full of old brass screws, odd nuts & bolts, you name it.
I even have a box of cigar box nails.
 

I hate to throw it out, because even 3 screws is like $5 at the local hardware store.

[toolmiser]

I keep a couple coffee cans with old screws in them.  Last year I sorted them out according to head shape.  I do go to them every once in a while.  They are nice to have around.

[GEB]

If I really searched my 20# bin of just screws I might find some used on the F102 back in the '50s.

[Bill Holt]

I frequently describe my dad as "never seeing anything that NEEDED to be thrown away"!  On the positive side, we lived a long way from any hardware store but he was able to fix almost everything for most of the people who knew him.  I have never had the space he had so my "hoarding" is more refined.

Can't thank you enough for your post...brought back some wonderful memories of a great man!  Old Screws, who would have thought?

[Stwood_]

My dad was the same. Never threw anything away. Now the things that *I* thought he had that needed throwing away, those were the things he would haul over somewhere and give away to someone he thought could use them, such as one older woman that had a year round flea market table/s in her front yard.

[Dave Diaman]

I spend all kinds of time combing antique shops looking for old slotted steel screws. If I ever manage to find them I buy everything they have but the supply is slowly but surely drying up.