No pics of any tools, but Mum was a Radar instructor at Cranwell as a WAAF Corporal, only tool of hers is a brass bodied screw driver, given to her by her local watch maker when she enlisted in Paisely, the recruiting officer asked her if she was any good with maths (ans yes), right your in Radar, what's Radar, don't know, but you'll find out before I do. Mum loved it. The screw driver got use on her sewing machine.

Ian S C

I have buried away a inside, outside callipers and a engineers hand clamp which I made when at Tech back in 1960 ! Not my finest work but at least I didn't get them trew at me unlike some of my class mate's

H

A couple of submissions. The first very much not engineering related. A Sussex pattern billhook inherited from my Grandfather, still in regular use in the garden and for its original purpose, hedgelaying. A bit of research identified the makers mark, to be a Walter Wadey who was a blacksmith in Billingshurst in the 2nd half of the 19th Century.

Slightly more recent, a pair of toolmakers clamps both made by myself. The one on the left was an apprentice piece mad at the BAe Weybridge (Brooklands) training workshop in 1980. The one of the right was made in a school workshop (George Abbot, Guildford) a few years earlier. A got a very high mark for that one. The teacher was so impressed I was allowed to finish them on a surface grinder. The one an only time I have ever used one. A word on finish. The left hand one was phosphated and the right hand one had a traditional dunk in waste in oil after heating. Of course both are still in regular use.

My glasses because without them I could not model anything. 🤓

I have a few hand tools that were my fathers, mainly some lovely timber-handled hand-saws (both rip and cross-cut) and a Stanley plane, all from the 50's, but the main item is my lathe inherited from my grandfather. It is a 1920's Willimott Ideal, and i have memories of fiddling with the controls whenever visiting my grandparents as a young lad of 7 or 8. My grandfather apparently used it to make parts for the various cars and motor-mowers he owned and maintained/rebuilt over the years, but i never saw him actually using it. When he passed away it became mine, and now some 45 years later it is finally set up in my workshop and operated regularly. It's not particularly powerful, fast, strong or accurate, but i just love using it.

What upsets me is that all my dads old tools got snaffeled up by a close family member including his hand made tool box……

AND what ever he got for them (pence) would have been peed up the wall………

A dear old friend said, "nobody can take the memories" which after all are pricless……so I guess they'll have to do…..

be nice to have something to pass-on tool wise……

will post some photo's of a couple of thing for the family…….in a while…….

Clogs

Peter. You could try "Mystery Tools" on this site. It normally sparks off quite a few replies.
BobH

I’m fortunate to have a great many…

To the great displeasure of my parents, my paternal grandfather gave me a small ball pein hammer at the age of 3, it remains in regular use and reminds me fondly of him every time i go to pick it up, the first among equals of a treasured bunch of tools.

He subsequently gave me a small set of joinery tools, including a small “footprint” fine toothed dovetail saw, which is my go-to saw for fine work of all kinds.

My maternal grandfather gifted me my great grandfather’s carving tools and moulding planes when i was in my teens, and later after I left university, also gave me the bulk of his engineering tools, micrometers and inspection equipment; he still enquires after it from time to time, and seems particularly happy that I’m able to keep utilising them to their full potential.

There is also an unusual looking King Dick adjustable spanner which has no story to it, but simply happens to be better made than any other adjustable I’ve ever seen, almost as if some previous owner had taken the time to closely fit the parts.

I still have the very first micrometer I bought when I was an apprentice Fitter / Turner back in '64; iirc it cost me about a weeks wages…£3 10s 6d ( £3-52p ) paid for on 'tick' on a weekly basis, 1s ( 5p ) a week, can't for the life of me remember who the dealer was, through the 'works tool club' iirc. It was one of the first models that had a dual scale, metric & imperial, made by Shardlow of Sheffield. It has resided in the back of my tool chest for years now & only saw the light of day when I recently had a sort out…& it still zero's up accurately.​..

​Still in good nick for a 53 year old micrometer!

George.

…I still have the very first micrometer I bought when I was an apprentice Fitter / Turner back in '64; iirc it cost me about a weeks wages…£3 10s 6d ( £3-52p ) paid for on 'tick' on a weekly basis, 1s ( 5p ) a week,…

FWIW… at todays prices it would be…

​… Dual scale irrelevant in todays digital age what with digi mic's & callipers but it brings back memories.

George.

My first micrometer cost me 2/6 Half a Crown in 1962, it's a DCMT, as avertised in ME in the 1940/50s. Made in England, and made cheap, no ratchet, moderately accurate, a bit better than calipers and a steel rule.

Ian S C