I inherited my Gramps tools when he died in 1982, lathe,bench drill, and loads of handtools, added to by myself over the years, hardly a day goes by when I remember lovely evenings in the shed with Gramps especially when using his tools my grandparents brought me up and gave me the interest in practical stuff, I have a old brylcreem jar that has some mixture of polish/thinners in it one sniff and I am back in the 1950's, it will never be thrown away happy days indeed

Mick

I'll say. I inherited Dad's old Drummond lathe, on which I learned to turn at about 8 years old making wooden bowls and fireplace pokers with fancy handles as Christmas gifts for grandparents. Also many of Dad's old spanners and the like that were used in the shed to repair the motorbikes and cars of three teenage boys and all our mates for many years. It is special to still be able to use them after all this time. Kind of a second childhood!

I have a couple of my grandfather's old wood saws and carpenter's squares too. Wonderful old stained wood and brass items that I am sure he rolls around somewhere in mirth at every time I do a bit of woodwork. He was a master cabinet maker, and I very definitely am not!

I have most of my old apprentice toolbox tools too, left in storage in Dad's shed for decades and pulled out when I inherited the lathe. Some of them were self-made as training projects, others were bought but good quality from back in the 70s. Many a time when using one of them, even just a particular file, the hacksaw or a prick punch etc, I can remember to the word some old boy at the works telling me how to use it properly. Amazing how old tools carry that sense with them. And those old boys would have learned it in their youth from some other old boys who did their apprenticeships back in the days of steam ships and horse carriages.

My Dad was a good all rounder in the building trade so when he passed I kept all his tools. His saws and planes wood chisels etc. I still get special pleasure using them and remember the joint projects we did together. Building a boat or an ash body frame for a car restoration. When he was still alive he would always comment on what I had done around the house, checking the gap around a door I had fitted with a coin and disapproving looks if the coin was to tight or loose in one area !

I still have, and use, my Moore & Wright engineers square which was presented to me at apprentice school in Port Sunlight fifty five years ago. It brings back mixed memories. The onerous task of using it together with file and hacksaw to produce a square in a square. On the other hand, I had hair in those days and no wrinkly bits. – Rik

My dad was a diesel mechanic, ship's engineer, fitter and turner, and finally a draftsman. He wasn't particularly affectionate or hands on as a father but I enjoy using the few bits and pieces I took out of his shed when he died.

There is a 0=1" micrometer which is useful. A small engineer's clamp sees a lot of use. I even used on old lathe tool he must have ground before I was born a few weeks ago because it was just the right shape for a tricky job. The drafting pens, compasses etc are good too.

So they don't really bring back 'good memories' but I do feel a bit of connection to him when I use them. I think he was glad I was interested in these things, as long as it stayed a hobby and I kept my day job which is a lot cleaner!

I have a tiny pair of very worn pliers that belonged to the grandfather I never met, he was a coppersmith.

I also have the steel rule given to me when I was a young teenager (in those days it was for measuring up card and balsa). I have one thirty years younger that appears identical apart from the unworn corners!

Neil

My Dad used to be a car mechanic (Engine fitter in WWII) and he gave me his Britool socket set. Beautiful stuff, only parted with after many years because it was Imperial, not Unified or Metric as my cars then were. I gave it to a mate who repairs old British motorbikes.

Geoff

I have the metric spanners and metric thread, feeler and radius gauges, all carrying broad arrows, that were issued to my father, together with a letter confirming that they were a personal issue, and to be his property. I wonder if the dockyard management thought it cheaper to give all fitters one set of tools when metrication came in than to issue tools and then have to replace any lost ones?

Fortunately he gave these to me when he retired as after he died my mother would not let me clear out his shed, and years later I found the roof had caved in and everything in there was ruined. It must have made a mark on me, as I am now busily buying AF and WW tools to give my son. Perhaps I hope he will think of me when he uses them?

Brian

Inherited my fathers tool chest after his death. Full of pattern making tools, he worked for the same company his whole life except for his time as an RAF airframe fitter for most of the war. Loads of Marples gouges and Rabone Chesterman shrinkage rules. A few other smaller bits and pieces I find useful for model engineering. The chest still has that oil smell that he brought home with him. he used too wear a greasy raincoat riding his BSA Bantam. I remember him taking me out on the back of his bike a few times to a nearby airfield that the USAF operated from in the late fifties. We would stop at the end of the airstrip as the aircraft flew over us. Try and do that these days. He had a nice wood lathe but gave it to my brother in law, he never used it then it disappeared.

Howard

This hammer is a bit of a family mystery. It was inherited from my father's uncle who worked in Devonport Dockyard so it's probably a ship-building tool. It came with an empty wooden tool chest and an iron bound mallet.

The oddly shaped head weighs about 3kg and the wooden handle is rather slimmer than that of a sledge-hammer. It's punch marked 'G' on one side and 'A' on the other: the initials don't correspond to anyone in the family.

I've used it a couple of times to seat fence posts. In action it feels quite different from a sledge-hammer. The combination of balance and spring in the handle allows a steady rhythm of moderate blows to be delivered.

I'm not sure what needed that kind of action and have no idea what the blunted spike end was used for. I would have guessed rivetting except I've seen film of rivetters in the 1930's who weren't using this type of hammer.

Does anyone know what the tool is called and how exactly the two head ends were used?

Thanks,

Dave

Thanks Hopper, that makes sense. The owner started work in the dockyard before WW1.

The film I saw included a man catching red-hot rivets with a pair of tongs and popping them straight in the hole. I wonder if that was common practice or just done for the camera.

"Podgy Bar" was new to me too. I wrongly guessed it was a pub for cuddly people. Now I'm doubly educated.

Cheers,

Dave