Tools you Treasure

[Richard S2Participant @richards2]

I'm sure I'm not alone in having items of tooling that are inherited from family and developed a real affinity with them. For me, my father spent most of his working lifetime in Aviation. From the RAFVR April 39 – finishing with British Caledonian in June 85.

All his Tooling he accumulated from 1945 with Hawkers, Airwork and BUA, much of it was stored that was not used regularly when he/we worked on Cars etc. He gave me the precision stuff when I built my Garage/Workshop which was intended for both our uses. Sadly, he wasn't with us long enough to enjoy it all and have a proper retirement. And so the main item I value the most is this Dial Indicator which he purchased in 1948-

He had it tested again before he Retired, and it was still functioning perfectly throughout the range without any adjustment required. Today, it is still behaving pretty well and lives with the fittings/mount he made for it The Aviation grade Mushroom Head Screws are 3/16"unf.

Made for & Marketed by E.H Jones.

I've tried to find some info on the Maker (R,P&S (Lon) Ltd, without success, if anyone has any?.

Also have his M&W 1" micrometer of the same age lives with the D.I in their own storage compartment. Anyone care to share their items?.

[Richard S2Participant @richards2]

Inherited, bought or found, what are your’s?.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

One of my grandfathers was an RAF coppersmith.

The other was a radio/sonar operator the Navy, then taught Radar at Cranwell in the RAF. His tap and die set willbe in the next MEW.

Neil

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

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

[David George 1Participant @davidgeorge1]

My most treasured tool is a small 1/4 inch socket set which my father gave me. He used it at work in a colliery as a chock fitter and gave me it some 35 years ago before he died. It has a set of Allen keys, BA sockets 0 to 8 and has a flexible drive, T bar 2 extensions, and screw driver handle.

David

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

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

[Brian HParticipant @brianh50089]

My prized tool is a 0-1" micrometer by Browne & Sharpe, sold to me by my foreman shortly after I started as an apprentice.

It is the larger of the two in the picture which has a normal sized B&S 0-1" for comparison. I've never seen another one of the same size!

[Stuart BridgerParticipant @stuartbridger82290]

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.

[Nick_GParticipant @nick_g]

.

I don't have any tools that I 'treasure' so to speak. But I have a few that's construction and standards of precision and design I admire.

But being practical and realistic I would be totally stuffed without my DRO's and loctite 638. so perhaps those.

Nick

[Boiler BriParticipant @boilerbri]

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

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

I have a few I'd not part with ever. Unfortunately I have no photos, but here's a description:

1. Great grandfather was a ship's engineer in the 1880's/90's & made his own taps & die plates as required on board. Unfortunately he made them using whatever gears were on the lathe at the time, so it's rare for any of the bolts I've inherited to fit anything 'normal'. Nonetheless I have a pot of bolts he made.
2. My grandfather was MIA in France in 1940, and my grandmother got a 'Presumed Dead' telegram. What he was actually doing was taking his artillery troop at night to Cherberg with night time only movements because he though Dunkirk was a death trap and refused to go there when ordered. When doing stellar navigation to Cherberg he used a set of compasses & dividers I still have. These were then also used to plot firing angles & ranges in N. Africa & up Italy later on in the war.
3. My 4" bench vice was given to me by my father. In regular use & is treasured.

Regards,

Richard.

[Perko7Participant @perko7]

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.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

> but i just love using it.

That's what its about

[clogsParticipant @clogs]

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 blairParticipant @peterblair72074]

Not on really the same topic but I have quite a bunch of tools I picked up at garage sales. I don't use any of them and for the most part I have about 20 that I don't even know what their original purpose was!!! I could post some photos or if there is any interest I could start a new thread?

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

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

[peter blairParticipant @peterblair72074]

Thanks Bob. I will do just that. I am as you know new too this site and didn't see the Mystery Tools Forum.

[JellyParticipant @jelly]

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.

[Nathan SharpeParticipant @nathansharpe19746]

Clogs , I know what that feels like. My old man left it all to my half sisters father (house included) to look after his daughter after my Dad died. My old man raised her as his own after mother died . Her father put her in "care" and sold it all , went on the p–s and forgot about her. We , all three children, knew nothing about varying parentage until 1996 when we met up for the first time in 25 years when she noted a difference. When our mother died my (full) sister and I went into"care" because of fathers age , youngest (half) sister remained with her father (living with us) and my father. When she found out she went on the "p–s" also , on his grave. Nathan.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

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.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Re Mechman48's micrometer.
I was trying to work out how a dual scale could work until I rolled the screen up a bit more and saw the diagonal Mm scale. Its a neat idea.
BobH

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

…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.

[MikeParticipant @mike89748]

During World War 2 my father was an RAF electrician, and he was seconded to the Americans to fit British radios to the B17 bombers. For this purpose they gave him the B17 toolkit, and they refused to take it back when the task was finished – so he brought it home. I still have some of it, mainly ring spanners and a couple of screwdrivers, but my favourite item was a hand drill with a gearbox, on one setting of which the chuck always turned clockwise no matter in which direction the hand wheel was turned. This was very handy for drilling holes in awkward corners. Alas, it wore out some time in the 1990s, after serving my dad, then me, for around 50 years. This was a favourite tool, and I wish I could get another one.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

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

[Author]

Posts