Putting my tools away today, I came across a slipjoint plies my little brother gave me many years ago. I also have a few tools my Dad and even a few my Grandpa had used . Does anyone else have tools that have sentimental value to you?
Who boy! You asked a loaded question here. I have tools from my Granddad, my Uncle Richard, and my late Father in law Charlie. Every time I use them, I feel like they are helping me on whatever project I’m working on. I also engrave their name on the tools I got from them. In my family, tools are heirlooms that are passed from generation to generation. I also have a special ratchet that my little brother gave me for Christmas 1994. None of my heirloom tools are at work. All at home. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I've got hand saws that my grandfather used in the 30s and 40s as a finish carpenter, wall hangers at this time.
Oh yeah. Actually Truckdoctor Andy nailed it: “Every time I use them, I feel like they are helping me on whatever project I’m working on.”. Have some of my father’s and grandfather’s and use them regularly. Special prize is the Hammer my father used building our family home. A few years back I gave my son one of my dad’s tool boxes with some of his tools and he uses them too.
Yup. All of my dad's tools and some of grand dad's, including his blacksmith tools, anvil, post vise and post drill press(which I used yesterday!). They are priceless treasures to me...
I think about my dad or grandpa when I used their old tools. I was just going through dads stuff ( moving to an apartment) and found the torque wrench I used on my first motor at age 15, I had to have it.
I have a few. They are my go to tools most of the time. They feel like family. I even have some of my first tools i bought . Take care of them and they will last forever. Sadly no one to give to when i'm gone.
I don’t have many hand me downs. But I have my own that are over 40 years old. Those are my memories. Snowman
I have a few wood working tools from my Grandpa and some from my Dad. I have the S-K socket sets I bought from the auto parts store I worked at while in high school and most of the tools Dad bought me when I started auto mechanics class at the vocational school. Dad and Grandpa are both gone now and I think of them every day and especially when I use one of their tools. The one tool that brings back the saddest memories is a Plumb ball peen hammer that my best friend and work pardner gave me 1967 when we started in the auto mechanics class. We were best buds from grade school on until his early death in 1983. By that time we lived about 60 miles a part and didn't get together much. He had called me out of the blue about a week before he died and was coming to see me the next weekend but had a heart attack and dropped dead before he made it. He was 32.
Working on my avatar I will pick up a tool and realize that my dad probably used it on this very same car 60 years ago. I will stop and reflect for a few moments, smile and move on.
I've still got a few of the Challenger brand wrenches that I bought with my first real set of tools when I started trade school in 1965. I've also got the torque wrench that my step father gave me for either my birthday or Christmas that year. My most prized tool though is the tool my late son made me in his first quarter of machinest school that is used to offset the edge of sheet metal to have a lap joint that lays flat. We had seen it in a car magazine in 1988 and he made it at school I've still got his tool box with some of his tools and some pieces he made in trade school. That box will either go to his brother or to his sister some day when they get their own garage to keep it in.
Yep-many from my Dad and some from an old fella that was a P51 Maint chief during WW2. My sons will end up with them plus all of my 60 years worth of accumulation.
I have a pair of yellow handled channel locks and a okay pair of wire cutters that I traded my car stereo for about 35 years ago in Lentz district in Portland. It wasn't a great trade, he got the better end of the deal with my Pioneer cassette deck, graphic EQ amp and a couple speakers. But then again he didn't ask me, he just ran off with his booty and left his tools of the trade in the floor board of my Formula Firechicken. The car is long gone but I still own the tools. Always hoped I'd run into him one day, grab his nuts with the channels and snip 'em off with the side cutters.
Yes, have most all of my dad's tools; and many from my grandfather. Dad had a decent collection and did most all of his own repairs. Grandfather had a repair shop in the 50's so I have many older specialty tools from him. Also a big stack of old Motors Manuals and other repair books. Have specs for almost any old engine, transmission and chassis. Fun to look through and occasionally they help me out with my old cars.
I have a few "Ford" wrenches and pliers , probably model T or A. Also sort of off topic, I have and use my Grand fathers wood hand tools which mostly are from the 1880s, hand saws , dividers, try squares and framing squares.
I have a pair of Klein Tool needle nose pliers that my mom used on the radio****embly line at Stewart-Warner back in 1941 or so.
I have no idea how my dad ever got anything done with the*****py tools he used. But he did have some plumb ratchets and sockets that were good tools and I have them. As a mechanic my entire working life, almost every tool in my tool box has a little story to it. like my 5/8ths Snap-on line wrench. I was working at a cheezy truck repair shop and got the job changing a 350 motor in a chevy pickup. I tried an open end wrench on the fuel; line going to the q-jet carb....was wanting to round off the nut. Just happened the Matco sales dude was in the shop so I bought a 5/8ths line wrench. Tried to get the fuel line loose and the wrench spread! The guy was still there and I******ed to him about his low budget wrench and he gave me another one and watched me use it...that one spread also! Got my money back and about 1/2 hour later the Snap-on man came in. Bought his line wrench and it popped that line loose with no drama at all. Every time I use it I remember that day. I have a whole slew of stories like that...
Want to know more about your stash of elderly US made tools ? Hit up ''alloy artifacts'' on the interweb ...
Dad's tools, some of my grandfathers's and few given to me by Uncles. Think about them every time I pick one of them up. The other thing is the tools I bought when I started. Mostly Snap-On, quite a few Craftsman. The thing I think about when I pick them up is the wear, I remember when I bought them new.
Lucky to have a bunch from my grandfather and a few from my father. But the ones I use most are the complete tool set I won for being the honor graduate in my Trade school auto mechanics class. The tools from the auto class had always been worth $50 from the local auto parts store. Well we had a new instructor that went with me to pick them up and when we got there he said just keep your mouth shut????? We go up to the BUSY counter and the instructor told the guy we were there to pick up the tools and he said "right over there pick what you want up to $50". The instructor winks at me and says "$50 I thought you said $150.00?" Guy looks up thinks a bit and said "did I say that?" The instructor "you sure did" guy says "ok then go over and grab what you want up to $150.00" (remember this was BIG bucks in 1967 LOL) So we grab them and get out a fast as we could. Thereafter the honor graduate got his tools worth $150.00 thanks to Mr. Richie RIP. Got three or four sets of Gold (color) plated socket sets and wrenches for going to Mopar master mechanics classes while working at a Chrysler Plymouth dealership. Hardly used but the gold color is fading from being old.
I have tools from my grandfather, father, father-in-law,Stepfather and uncle. We inherited a house from my in laws when they passed. While cleaning it out, and remodeling it, I found a claw hammer in each of the 9 rooms in the house. Not sure what they were doing with all of those hammers.
Yes, sir. Have a few from Dad, but have many of my Gramps tools, a couple of wood mechanic books from the turn of the 20th century, his wooden tool chest and a wooden tool caddy. Also have two vintage socket sets, one has several 32nds sockets (think metric sizes) the other uses what looks like a large hex wrench instead of a ratchet.
Mine are O/T as my folks were not overly automotive related, other than by necessity. But have a wood stove tool that my Grandfather made in the 1920's; and: Dad loved auctions, and by the time I was about 6 or so, took me along (I made a good "mule"). One auction was about over, and the last item was up for bid, a 2-man crosscut saw. The auctioneer cried and cried unsuccessfully for a dollar. Dad looked at me (I was 12 at the time), and said "Son, your education is sorely lacking". To the auctioneer "Quarter!". Took me and the saw home, and proceeded to teach me how to use it! Hangs on the wall in my shop. Can't show it to anyone, because current "artists" are scouring the country for these to use as easels. Lots of rural antiques have been "repurposed" to sell to city folks with lots of money. Have a number of specialty tools that my Dad made, simply because he could use the money saved for other things. To me, these are priceless! Jon.
I've got some my dad used, some he bought me-high polished offset box wrenches and complete set of brake wrenches. I still have, and use most often, the tools i bought at 14- a Craftsman 1/2" drive ratchet and a 1/2" and 7/16" socket. All I could afford, but it's built from there.
I bought two in Iowa for 25 cents each. One still has the cross pieces that support a pair of teeth. They were filed away as the teeth wore and were resharpened. My wife and I actually used these saws to cut logs from trees we felled with an axe to have sawn into beams for the first house we built in West Virginia. 1974,just married, no idea how to build a hose. But, like our marriage, the house is still standing.
A fair bit of my tools are hand-me-downs from my great uncles and grandfather. My maternal grandmother had 6 brothers, a few of which were very handy guys and had decent sets of tools. Unfortunately, by the time I was born in 1984, only 2 of them were left, and another passed in 1991, shortly followed by my grandmother. Before he died in 1991, my Uncle Anthony would show me how to do basic stuff around the house; change an electrical outlet, tune up the lawnmower and change the oil... that kind of stuff, and that's where the mechanical bug got me. Nobody else in my family is particularly into tools or building, so for whatever reason my Mom always ended up with the tools of my great uncles when they passed. Now I have them. Lots of old USA Craftsman -V-, Plumb, Williams, S-K.... But are largely outshined by modern tools in terms of performance. That's fine. The memories I have are less about the tools themselves, and more about the time spent using them with my family. In terms of the tools I've acquired since, sometimes there's a cool story attached to getting them. Answering a FB marketplace ad and meeting some character...god only knows.
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