As you folks saw from Shawn Duarte's thread, the boys from Shepherd Tool visited NH last weekend. Doug and Ben drove down from Canada to teach a plane making class for the Guild of NH Woodworkers and give a presentation on infill planes. Members of the class built shoulder planes, thumb planes, a Spiers smoother, and like Shawn, I built a chariot. A great time was had by all.
Last Friday I had taken the day off to clean house under SWMBO's orders to prepare for the arrival of Doug and Ben as houseguests. While home, my boss called from work to tell me that a large and heavy package had arrived via UPS from Idaho. I drove to work and got help lifting the box into the car. Yep, I even got to go to work on a day off. After arriving home I opened the box and removed the smaller of the 2 family tool chests which my uncle had sent from Idaho. This was the first time I'd seen the chest since my grandfather died in 1960 when my Dad, uncle, and I took it to the Railway Express depot to ship it for my uncle.
After the toolmaking meeting on Saturday, the Shepherd guys and I went to our house for a coupla beers and conversation. Sue prepared us a fine dinner and afterwards we repaired to my bench room to explore the tool chest and examine its contents. In the process a family legend bit the dust. Upon close examination we decide that neither chest had come over from Ulster as family lore had stated. Both chests were American made and the earlier one probably dated from the late 1860s or 1870s. The Idaho chest is of more primitive construction (nailed) and lacks the refinement of the larger joiners chest which is dovetailed and contains nice sliding tills and a lidded saw compartment.
The partial contents of the Idaho chest are: 2 Disston hand saws, 1 Atkins saw, 1 Wilkinson saw, 1 Brown & Co saw, 1 Bishop saw, chisels by Sorby, Witherby, and Underhill, a type 4 Stanley #3 smoother, a knuckle joint block plane, 3 drawknives, a pristine set of Russell Jennings bit in the box, some Buck Brothers carving gouges, a Millers Falls Yankee drill, a Millers Falls Brace, several small mallets, assorted large files, some saw sharpening files, and a fancy brass marking/mortising gage. There was also a bunch of stuff I haven't cataloged yet. Much of it needs a light cleaning and some stuff needs sharpening, but all in all, it's a great haul. Being family related tools, none of it will ever be sold.
Doug and Ben were a great help in identifying a lot of the more obscure items, something which would have taken me months. While we were in the shop jawing, Sue brought down a tray with desset- carrot cake and ice cream. Talk about being spoiled by your wife.
Eventually just before noon on Sunday the boys had to leave to continue their trip. Sue says they are welcome any time and maybe they'll be here again at the end of June when they come to the Wood Days Festival at the Canterbury Shaker village. What a great weekend.
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... the collar doesnt seem to choke 
... not quite like those Ottawa Golf Shirts that perenially go on sale early 
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