A continuation of a dove tail chisel
#8
This is a continuation from an earlier post about making a dove tail chisel and where it all started but has nothing to do with the actual chisel so I started a new post.  I passed a tip on using a knife steel to roll a burr on a card scraper and Admiral informed me that not all steels were created equal. That information will not do me any good because I have one, but to others reading to post it is an important piece of information. So here it goes, the passing on of information.


My dad worked in a meat packing plant for about 15 years. I think he quit about 1940. Anyway his steel was always smooth. It was one of the things I kept when he passed away, so I guess I never really looked closely at other steels, just saw them. Thanks for letting others know that the grooved ones don't work. But we have also given rust hunters enough information and something else to consider when going to a flea market, garage sale Etc.

I understand the real value oh what is handed down. My grandfather was a retired carpenter. Anyway he would come and visit us and stay the summer. My mother always had a project for him to during that time. Anyway my dad had a rip saw that he never used but I did all the time. I remember using my knee to clamp the wood out on the stoop and a lot of the time the teeth made contact with the cement. I could write a lot about this but will spare you. Anyway the first thing he did when he got here was sharpen the saw, so I got a freshly sharpened saw once a year.  The saw is still sharp and it hangs on my shop wall right next to the clock so I look at it quite often.

I started really woodworking in 1973 and have built most of the furniture in out house and 3 kitchens and so on. My point is I find it amassing that just having some nails, a hammer, and a sharp saw available to me as a kid of 8- to what ever effected me through my life. I gave my grandson a miter saw , with a sharp saw, for his 11th birthday along with a good sized pile of white pine. I showed him how to use it and then left him alone. I did tell him that I had more wood. Latter I found out that he and all the kids in the neighborhood, boys and girls alike spent the next 6 hours sawing wood. Except for Zak, the rest knew all about cell phones but had never sawed a piece of wood or pounded a nail. I got a call latter that night, they, not just him, were out of wood and needed more.

The interesting thing is my grandfather never gave me any instructions, just a sharp saw and a goodly supply of left over nails of all sizes. I like to think he went out of his way to get them for me. I showed my grandson how to use the miter saw, supplied the wood and left him all to himself.

One person took the time to say that although he has better hammers his preferred hammer was his father's. That's important and thanks for sharing.

I know this can be considered off topic but if you would like, please feel free to share your stories. And remember the most important thing is to impact other peoples lives. The young are easier.

Tom
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#9
When my two boys were young , I made a couple of work benches for them with vises. I also made them a miter boxes and a little carpenters tool boxes. I put in each box, a 6 oz hammer, a short homeowner's  hardened tooth saw,small egg beater drill, apron, pencil and small tape measure. They were all real tools. The Germans still made egg beater drills.  They are now both very well paid tradesman, both foremens, one a millwright, the other a electrician.

The only tool of my Dad's I got was the DeWalt, (see my Old DeWalts post) my brother got the hand tools.
A man of foolish pursuits
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#10
My grandfather was a solider in the Canadian Army in WW2 and came back with a bride from the Netherlands. As such, he never had the opportunities for school, etc..., worked as a Warehouse labourer, raised 4 kids. This meant he had to be real handy around the house so had a small assortment of tools. He passed and a cleanup of his workshop ensued. My father in his teenage years purchased my grandfather (in his words) "the best set of chisels he could afford". These chisels became mine as my father grew older and no longer needed them. He asked me if I wanted "a beat up set of chisels, probably not worth a darn now". So I figured, why not with no expectations for what I was going to get ...

   

Needless to say, I was shocked as I asked around about this set. I don't use these because they mean more to me than their use, but I did value experience refurbishing them.
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#11
Have an old apple crate of carpentry tools from my 2nd cousin's father. The girls were flirting with boys (young men) on steam trips to Egypt in the first decade of the 20th century. The sisters lived in the house the father built. The tools were on a ledge in the basement. We found an 1870 news article welcoming Nelson, Carpenter, to Des Moines, IA. I was about 16 when the tools came into my hands. 

I don't think my dad was familiar with the wood planes. He was a handy person with tools, but it was Grandpa who gave me guidance and handmade objects until I was eight. [I built a kite winding reel for my own son.] Grandpa built his cabin/cottage at Lake Erie and spent winters with us in CO. I still have a 'kiddy' saw (small panel) Dad gave me for my 5th B'day. I remember Dad discussing Grandpa's rip saw and his cross-cut, along with special tricks of carpenter squares. Our talks were very adult and technical. 

I don't remember being "too young" for any tools. But Dad did get grumpy about me losing his tools in the backyard all the time. I remember exhuming many from foxholes and forts we built. 

The dinosaur is another story....
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#12
Great storytelling, especially when they are about ancestry....

At around 8 years of age my Dad gave me a pile of scrap lumber and a bag of nails, had been wanting a tree house for quite some time. My memory falls me, but sometime prior I had been taught to use a handsaw, we lived on a farm so that was everyday stuff.

Well after bending most of the nails, probably spent more time straightening nails than building, the floor was complete. Way too big for me to move so my brothers helped get it into the tree. The house turned into a floor with railing, I called it a tree fort! Could only be entered by climbing a rope, made a great place to get away from older brothers, they were in their late teens and had a difficult time with the skinny rope that was used for access. Spent hours in that thing almost every day, it was truly a wonderful, even magical place.

We moved from there 4 years later, asked my Dad to take a chain and tractor and pull it down, he never asked why, he just did it. Last year I built a replica of that tree fort for my granddaughter, she was 5 at the time, only real change is that it has a staircase, no brothers to chase her yet.. One of my biggest regrets about being disabled is that I can't play with her in that tree fort the way a normal grandfather can. However that's minuscule when compared to my blessings, I'm a very lucky man.....

mos maiorum,
Andy


-- mos maiorum
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#13
A bit of history on Mark Allen's grandfather. The Canadian army liberated Holland after a very bloody fight. The daily losses through the low countries were greater than the daily losses in WW I. I'll quote my dad "They always had our range."

Those Swedish Beaver chisels are truly a fine set. They were well cared for, they look like they never seen a steel hammer. In my incomplete set ,missing the 7/8" and 1", the domes are all flat.  In Canada we have more Swedish and English chisels than American, so all I have to compare to are Stanley, Greenlee and Witherby . The Swedish chisels are much lighter in the blade and are a pleasure to use.  Use the Beavers to pare, each time you do ,you will be reminded of your dad's love of his father.
A man of foolish pursuits
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#14
Nice to hear stories like this and wish it happed to me, however, my grandfather on my dads side was Farmers back to 1760's and moved to Minnesota in the 1850's +/-.  The all served in the military for their country from the Revolution to Civil to Mexico up to WW1, WW2, Korea, and Vietnam and the last is me.  I do not know if any of the cousins are serving or not now.

My Moms Dad was half French Canadian and half Lakota Sioux.  No woodworkers but just regular people supporting families.

My wife's grandfather came from Germany in 1860's and I do not know when but moved to North Dakota and farmed and worked for the Railroad and he had some nice woodworking tools and a model A ford which my father in law was to have in the will but his brothers son went there and taken it before the will was read and kept it.
As of this time I am not teaching vets to turn. Also please do not send any items to me without prior notification.  Thank You Everyone.

It is always the right time, to do the right thing.
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