I Love the Smell of Rust on a Friday

[Jim Koepke]

Trying to get a few things done before my flight down to the San Francisco area tomorrow. On our way back from town we saw a sign for an estate sale, what the heck, we could take a few minutes out of our busy day to look at stuff.

Wow! The guy was a woodworker. Some power tools of no interest to me. A lot of wooden planes, some in great condition. A few jointers, jacks and smoothers. There appeared to be only one transitional. My interest was mostly in the molding planes. Found an 1/8" hollow, a small detail plane and two dado planes, 1/2" & 3/4". The 3/4" was the most expensive at $15. The other three were $10 each. There was also a set of Record/Marples blue handled chisels at $45 and a Marples set of carving gouges at $45.

Four Planes & Dividers.jpg

The dividers came at the next stop. After leaving the estate sale Candy said she needed to use a restroom and wondered about the Unlimited Treasures shop where we often stop. Okay, twist my arm. I was looking through the tools and talking to Mike the guy who owns the place with his wife Susan. I picked up a pair of large dividers and told him there are already too many of these in my shop. The wing lock screw was missing so that was pointed out to him. He asked me about some other tools since he isn't up on them. Then I got to looking at another pair of dividers, a 9" pair with a removable point. I explained they were nice since a pencil could be attached so it would be a compass. Then I noticed the name stamped in the leg, LS Starrett. He had them marked at $3. There was also a small 6" pair with a price tag placed so all that could be seen was LS and Athol, marked at $2. I told him his price was too low on these two. He was happy for my telling him but said if I was interested I could have both for $5. He took them up to the counter to reprice them but kept asking me if I wanted them for $5 as he would still be seeing a profit. We even looked up some similar dividers on ebay with a $65 bid on them. So Candy finds something she wants and we strike a bargain on that and then he asks again and twisted my arm to buy them at $5.

Starrett Logo.jpg

They are covered with a little rust, but they should clean up and be quite useable.

jtk

[Patrick Chase]

Does it smell like victory?

[Jim Koepke]

Does it smell like victory?

Well it felt like a personal victory for me today even though the wallet may have lost.

jtk

[Stewie Simpson]

Patrick; do a quick search on Kim Phúc, and reconsider your reference to the use of Napalm and the smell of victory .

[Jim Koepke]

Patrick; do a quick search on Kim Phúc, and reconsider your reference to the use of Napalm and the smell of victory .

One of the many horrific tragedies of war.

Please note Stewie the movie from which the clip comes is considered to be somewhat anti-war, especially the Vietnam war:

Apocalypse Now continually spotlights the ironies that accompanied the Vietnam War in particular and western imperialism in general. The film is not overtly antiwar, but it takes pains to reveal the atrocities of a war fought by the United States in the name of democracy and freedom. In the air strike, sampan, and bridge scenes, Coppola clearly depicts the death and destruction that result directly from U.S. involvement. Instead of helping innocent civilians, American troops kill them. They are strangers in a strange land, yet they act as if they own it, staking out territory and firing without provocation.

jtk

[Bill Houghton]

In my opinion, the several variations of those Starrett loose-leg (leg can be replaced with a pencil) dividers/compasses are hands-down the best ever. You can lock the setting so that you can't accidentally push them out of the setting, and, as mentioned, a pencil fits right into the loose leg's slot. And the fine adjustment is amazingly precise, yet the wing construction makes for very quick setting to the rough dimension. Good for you!

And Jim, I don't know from what review/summary you took the description of "Apocalypse Now," but to describe it as "not overtly anti-war" is to have missed the point of that movie entirely.

[Patrick Chase]

One of the many horrific tragedies of war.

Please note Stewie the movie from which the clip comes is considered to be somewhat anti-war, especially the Vietnam war:

Indeed. The Robert Duvall character who says that line is basically a caricature of gung-ho militaristic types. When the writer names the character "Colonel Kilgore" it's fairly obvious where they're coming from.

[Jim Koepke]

And Jim, I don't know from what review/summary you took the description of "Apocalypse Now," but to describe it as "not overtly anti-war" is to have missed the point of that movie entirely.

Some would see something being "overtly anti-war" as being in your face marches and demonstrations. Whereas this was more a thinking person's critique of war and the insanity of mechanized military conflict.

This is starting to stray away from a peaceful discussion about a good day of rust hunting.

jtk

[Rick Malakoff]

Hope this get's the thread back on track.

Jim great score, most of all types of wooden planes that I come across are in the 10/15$ range, me feeling is if I don't rescue them they will be lost for ever.

Rick

[steven c newman]

When you can smell RUST when you open the car door, after parking it at a sale.....
front view.jpg
shelton.jpg
There is just that aroma ........

[Prashun Patel]

Let's leave the war and this movie discussion out of this thread, please.

[Stew Denton]

Jim, I think Steven is right. I think BOTH of you can sense rust when you drive by a place, from what I read of the rust hunting posts you both write about.

Some of the rest of us, me for example, can barely sense it unless I am practically on top of it.

Maybe I am just lucky that I can't smell rust very well at all, as I already have too many saws, etc., as I mentioned in my post in Stevens recent post. Fortunately there is very little rust to be had in our area. When I get near a saw, plane, chisel, etc. that is at practically a "give away" price, it is hard to resist even though I don't actually need any more of them. (I am getting better at recognizing when I don't need a saw, etc., but if a Disston #12 showed up at a bargain price I would have one more saw that I don't need....but it would be glorious.)

You two have 6th senses for rust that some of the rest of us can only wistfully imagine having.

By the way, "Ya done good!"

Regards,

Stew