Olde Trade Tools

Decided to slow things down a bit today… Odin and I tired each playing fetch, so we crashed on the couch.

Pushing the envelope… defying age… and the help of family and friends.

A while back my wife informed me of a large cache of NOS china, crystal stemware, silver late, giftware, etc. although I hadn’t seen it until last weekend, this prompted me to put a plan into action…

I started by putting out name in for another booth at Market Road in Waterloo. Knowing that fine goods require lots of lighting and elegance, I started looking for the right kind of display cases (lighting in the top, glass shelving). My first bit of luck came with the purchase of a pair of matches oak cabinets with Queen Anne legs… ($100 - theft). A week later I spotted the 9’ x 9’ display case pictured. Asking price ($10,000)… stroked out and continued reading read “Best Offer”… which turned out to be $1000.The wonders that can be achieved when you can meet a tight deadline.

Meanwhile, back in Denmark… I had to come up with a better plan for managing the glass and tool inventory at home. Glass all over the diningroom table and boxes all over the living room was getting to be a bit much. I decided to sell off all of my Beaver Power Tools in the garage and luckily found a collector who wanted it all. It meant late Friday night in my driveway two weeks ago facilitating the move.

Last weekend with a Friday off from work to get brakes done and some routine appointments, I started pulling stuff out of the timber frame and the garage. It was 5:30 am. At breakfast, I found 11 sections of gondola shelving (retails new at about $650 a section) from a business closing. Trick was… it had to be moved prior to Sunday. $250 bought it all. At noon hour, I started disassembling and loading 4000 pounds of steel shelving on my own. Off-loaded the first pile of the shelving at home, With threat of rain, and stuff all over the driveway and lawn, I had no choice but to continue to relocate six cabinets of stemware from the timber frame to the garage. Day ended at 11:15 pm.

Saturday began outside again at 6:00 am. Finishes putting the stanchions from the first load of shelving into shed. Cleared timber frame for gas fitter to come and connect Jotul stove in timber frame. Went to Sea Cans to clear space for second load of steel shelving and large cabinet. Went to Cambridge to load up second installment of shelving. Back to the Sea Cans to offload. 6:00 finish.

Sunday… 5:00 am alarm for Aberfoyle… 5:00 pm home from Aberfoyle… 7:00 pm Oakville… disassembling large cabinet with original owner… 10:00 pm… Oshawa.

Wednesday… the only day my son is available to assist. Leave Oshawa at 12:30. Home to pick up a ramshackle U-Haul truck at 4:00. 7:00 pm Loading cabinet components in Oakville. 8:00’pm unloading components at Sea Cans, Fergus. 10:00 Bed.

Thursday 3:00 - Up and heading to work.

A few weeks in the life of a senior citizen. .. “Honey… Have you seen my cane?”

It’s been a while since I’ve done some thoughtful writing…

What began as a belated delivery of some auction winnings has reminded me of my affair with old tools and old ways…

Here on the second floor of the Tyrone Mill stands owner Robert Schaefer - surrounded by lineshaft and ancient machinery. It has been more than twenty years since I stood on these planks (when Ben Knebel and I hosted a Shepherd Tool Co. Event). It is quite likely that 175 years ago my ancestors visited this mill on a frequent basis. Solina is a short distance away.

I am older now but inside these walls I am not yet old. As a boy, my father would take us hunting and fishing and as we passed through Tyrone he would always talk about buying the blacksmith shop there someday.

Many people who are younger are overly concerned about getting older. What they dont see is that there is an experiential thing about getting older that you cannot get when you are younger.

Robert was a great host. He has embarked on the process of dressing his millstones… fascinating stuff.

The weather is starting cool… you should break from the norm some weekend and get out to the Tyrone Mill. Lots of interesting things and baked goods in the store there… A couple of lemon tarts left with me… but, for some reason didn’t make it home.

Eyes Everywhere…

Quite a number of guys spot for me in different parts… I’m humbled. This tip came courtesy of my friend Kevin up in the Ottawa Valley. A Millers Falls No 250 Barn Borer. Probably the best Brazilian rosewood handles I’ve seen on one of these.

For my lay-person friends the little chunks of wood in front are trunnels (think of them as tree nails). Once tenons were fit into mortises and set, holes were bored through the mortise and tenons. Holes through the tenons were a bit eccentric so that the driven trunnels would really tighten them up. During a barn-raising, everyone had a job. Young boys would probably be riving trunnels at ground level. By the time they reached adulthood, they would know the building process.

Don’t you wish we did more things as a community. Something where we could look across the fields… see a structure… and say… I had a hand in that… or I met my husband at that barn raising… can still smell the fresh saw lumber and feel the floor bouncing under my feet as Dunc McDougall sawed the Woodridge Waltz… it’s a good thing the horses knew their way home - the reins loose in my hands - the jug long empty at 4:00 am.

Again, we’ve come so far we can’t find the keys to get back.

Busy day… my buddie Matt came over and helped me build a greenhouse I bought a couple years back on FB. Was wondering whether I had enough hardware but it all worked out. Assembled a nice older model Lee Valley grow light stand I bought around the same time.

We built most of the support structure, steps, etc. from excess wood that had lying around.