MWTCA meet this Saturday

Friends,

Don't forget that the Midwest Tool Collectors Association has their Area C Mid-Summer tool meet this Saturday.  It starts at 8:00am and is being held at Tillers International in Scotts, MI , which is near Kalamazoo.   I'll be there, selling tools and showing off my new carriage makers tool box.  The cost to get in is $15.

If you are anywhere near Michigan this weekend, I highly recommend you stop out to the show.

Best,

Zach

Dimensions of the box

Gary from Toolemera asked me to publish some dimensions of the box.  The carcass is constructed with 3/4" oak, edge glued from narrower pieces.  The box is 32 1/2" tall and 43 1/4" wide when opened.  I've taken some pictures of the drawers and tills so that anyone who wants to copy it can do so.

Left elevation

 Left depth

 Right depth

Right elevation

Right width

Drawer detail, front is 1/2" thick, sides and bottom are 3/16"

Tool holding detail

Tool holding with scale

Tool holding elevation

The left till is 17 1/2" wide.  The swinging gate with hooks is make of 1/2" thick material, 12 1/2" by 12 1/2" square.  

I'm contemplating doing a quick and dirty Sketchup model of the box.  Would any of you like the file, if I do one?
Zach

                     

I got another one...

Friends,

My apologies for the delay between posts. It has been a very busy summer, with very little time to rust hunt. Today, I got a chance to hit an antique show, and boy I'm glad I did. The Utica Antique Show, in Utica, Michigan, was my destination.

I've never been to this show and I had no idea what to expect. I saw a few common tools, but nothing to write home about. After walking around for about 30 minutes, I found a fairly clean corner brace that was worth buying. I also found a "Musical Saw", a specially tempered sawblade that has some sort of brass plating. It is designed to be played with a violin bow to make music. I'd never heard of this before but had to buy it. I walked around the corner of the row and into the next tent, with no idea of what I was about to find...

You may remember an earlier post about a carriage makers tool box that I purchased in Mason, Michigan. Well, I found another carriage makers box, only this one had some even nicer "goodies" inside...

 The outside of the box

The inside of the box

 The planes

Unfortunately, it looks like a fair number of the tools have been lost.  There were no chisels in the box and only one small Henry Disston and Sons backsaw with a round handle.  There are the usual marking tools, including a pair of really nice bevel gauges.  The metal planes are all in really great shape, with only very minor surface rust on the castings.  They include a Stanley 5 1/2C, a Ohio Tool No 06 corrugated fore plane, a Stanley 10 rabbet bench plane and a Tower and Lyon 9" smoothing plane.  The smoothing plane on the left is lignum vitae, unfortunately the mouth is a little too wide to use as a fine smoother. The wooden horned planes do have the wedges and irons, they are stored in the lower right side drawer.  There is a nice 9" I and IJ White draw knife, which goes with my 12" White knife.  In addition, there is a carriage makers router draw knife.

There was also a very small plane blade that has Japanese characters on it.  Does anyone have any idea how to identify the maker of the blade? I understand that some Japanese blades are quite old and potentially valuable.  Any insights would be much appreciated.


I couldn't be happier with my new find.  Given that so many of the original tools are gone, I will probably sell a few of the items to make my money back, so if you see anything you have to have, shoot me an email at zacharydillinger@gmail.com.  

Zach