My Antique Mall Haul

[Sawduster]

We've got an antique mall close by and LOML and I occassionally drop in to see what they have new (well, old actually but stuff they didn't have last time were were there). Anyway came across a booth that had some old planes, a Miller Falls Jointer, a Stanley Router Plane and some other stuff and I saw a saw. A Disston saw and looked at the price tag. $7.50, Sold to the man in the black shirt. Best I can tell it is an old D-8 pre- 1928 from the little bit of the embossment I can see. One of those with the trigger finger (well, actually a thumb) hole. It's a 26 inch ripper, all the teeth seem to be present. And I only paid a little over twice as much as it sold for new.

Well, I looked around that booth some more and came across another old saw, this one a 16" with cross-cut teeth. "Dunn & Co." is about all I can see on the embossment. Anyone know anything about that company? Anyway, for $6.00 I latched onto it also.

Not a bad haul at all.

[Keystone]

Nice score Jerry! If you got one of these:

http://www.vintagesaws.com//8/thumbs/r8_d8.jpg


for $7.50, I'd say you're way ahead of the game!

[WoodMangler]

You mean hand saws??... as in, NO motor???

EEK!! ;)

I have read ... somewhere.... no clue where right now.... about Dunn & Co...hmmm... guess I'll do a little digging....

[Sawduster]

Yep. Ever now and again my long knuckle dragging neanderthal arms need to get a bit closer to a piece of wood than them 'lectrical things will let you get.

[Sonny Edmonds]

...yeah....
They dunn went outta business.
Now isn't that shocking news? :7
Nope, can't say as I ever did hear of such a thang. ;)

:D

[link:www.sonnyedmonds.com | Sonny Edmonds]
"Precision Firewood Specialist"
God Bless America !
One Nation Under God!
"I was raised around lead based paint.
It ain't an excuse, just a fact."

[Cody Colston]

Jerry,

Nice haul...I guess. I don't know much about antique tools, but I think a Disston for that price is a great buy.

I don't go in much for using tailless tools either, but I do like having them. There is something satisfying about holding an old, still-functioning tool.

I guess it's the nostalgia we all have for a simpler time.

Cody

[ol]

The expert at anything was once a beginner...

[/ol]

[TDHofstetter]

Are we quite Dunn, or do I hafta haul off 'n' ... are you feeling "disst" on yet? :) :) :) I think I dunn saw somethin' like that onced... :)

Darn, search as I might I can't seem to ("seem not to be able to", but less words... although who's counting?) find any reference to Dunn & Co anywhere except my own distant memory. Not even in my distant pepery can I find such a thing... :)

I'd say you made good, though, Jer. I bought myself a ripsaw not much different from yours some good while ago, but I didn't get mine as cheap as you got yours and it didn't even have the thumbhole. With a little lovin', you should have a tool that's pleasant to have & use for the rest of your life. Amazing how fast a well-sharpened ripper can cut.

Yeah. Just love them ol' tools.

One thing bothers me about antique tool places. I keep goin' an' seein' two things again & again - meat grinders (do we not have ENOUGH of the darned things? Harbor Freight sells 'em NEW still, and someday everybody'll have one - right?) and old files. Now... about those old files. They were once sharp, right? Anybody ever try to resharpen one - neglecting, of course, the stuck-in-a-flowerpot or muriatic-acid techniques, which work fine for files that aren't too dull - ? Here we have a boxful of old files that've been jingling around for who knows how long busily bashing the teeth off each other, or what remains of the teeth after nobody knows how many years of actual use followed by nobody knows how many decades of rust... and it seems to me that these files'll never EVER be sharp enough again to be good files.

Yeah, I've bought a few to use the high-carbon steel for other things... but there are a LOT of old files out there in the antique stores - and there's nary a one that's pretty enough to hang up in somebody's living room or something as a reminder of days of yore (or even Winnie, for that matter). What's the deal with that? Do people maybe paint long skinny scenes on 'em or something like they do with circular saw blades?

Curiouser and curiouser.

-- Tim --

If today
I have not helped bring a smile
To at least one face,
Then today
Was a wasted day.

[Sawduster]

The thing about them old files is that they don't ever seem to get lost. What do you do with and old file that is no longer sharp enough to use? My farrier next door neighbor goes through a bunch of them. They are too dull for him to use much sooner than they are without other use and he gave me a big handful some time back. What he normally does is pawn them off on his customers for some minor hoof dressing. But then what do they do with them when they are too dull to use for that? Probably throw themin a box somewhere in the barn and let them sit. Then they eventually become part of an estate and get sold bulk with some other scrap metal and end up at junk sales. They then end up in those antique tool stores and pile up because while some folks collect planes and saw and stuff, I don't know anyone who collects old files. I'm surprised there aren't more since no one buys them. And how can you really tell if a file is really old or just worn out? The general configuration hasn't changed if forever.

[TDHofstetter]

I s'pose you're right. Come to think of it, they never seem to walk away under someone else's power, either - when's the last time somebody stole a FILE from you? You could leave the things lying on the hood of your car in downtown Manhattan and go away for hours - and when you got back you'd be missing your wheels, your hood ornament, and your air bags - but the files'd still be there ... except somebody prob'ly would have used one to carve something artistic in the side of your car before tossing it back on the hood.

Can't even get rid of 'em right, by sending 'em off to the landfill. If you do, there's surely gonna' be somebody rootin' around who'll pipe up with a "looky THAR! That thar's a dadblasted FILE! Me, I'm a-gonna' take that thar file home with me, see if it's any good".

'Round & 'round it goes.

-- Tim --

If today
I have not helped bring a smile
To at least one face,
Then today
Was a wasted day.

[rrich]

I seem to remember back in the '50s maybe, an article in Popular Science or Popular Mechanics (or Illustrated) explaining how to take an old file and make a fishing or hunting knife from it.

With that said, let me pose this question.

Is the steel in a file good enough to make a unique chisel or cutter or scraper? Would the effort be worth it?