Do you use vintage tools?

[Nofries]

So I am contemplating what to do with some tools I inherited from my FIL.

I've recently just started going through some tools that were my FIL's. Mostly Wrenches that were USA Craftsman, Long C a few, Snap On, Williams Etc. Some were his some I suspect were picked up at estate sales. Anyways I have tools that are duplicates of most of these however the nostalgic and USA made tools just have the COOL factor. Some are from the 30's and 50's. I don't want to put them away in a drawer and never use them, I am not concerned they are going to get damaged in any way they are tools meant to be used.

Anyways I wanted to poll GJ for what they do with a similar situation, I don't have much room to display them, I don't want to put them in a tool box and NEVER use them, but I have more complete sets and didn't "need" the additional tools.
Please post what you've done with your vintage tools you don't need but want to hold onto them.

I am going to have more in the future from my father, and he has his uncles tools that were his back in the 50's and 60's when he worked for Libbey Oewns Ford. (LOF)

 

[Kurt4440]

Some high quality vintage, yes.
Antiques, no.

 

[Tynee]

I'd try to find a kid who needs decent tools and set him or her up with whatever you have duplicates of. Selling is less attractive because its so difficult to get enough out of them to make it worth your time, but hopefully gifting them to someone who will use and appreciate them is easier and more rewarding in the end.

 

[Nobody-named-Olli]

“Use them ocasionally as needed.”

Kind regards,
Olli

 

[Gmonkee]

Obviously the real relics of the past aren't ever the best choice. And the old standards aren't going to be compatible with now most things using metric fasteners.

I still use wood chisels from 1850ish vintage and some of our bigger wrenches when needed are quite ancient. It's rare now to find a need for them just at home.

But, they are here anyway.

 

[rust in the eye]

Define "vintage" please.
Some of my everyday wrenches and sockets are 4 to 6 decades old.

 

[Nofries]

I'd try to find a kid who needs decent tools and set him or her up with whatever you have duplicates of. Selling is less attractive because its so difficult to get enough out of them to make it worth your time, but hopefully gifting them to someone who will use and appreciate them is easier and more rewarding in the end.

My Son (26) will get some for sure.

 

[Nofries]

Obviously the real relics of the past aren't ever the best choice. And the old standards aren't going to be compatible with now most things using metric fasteners.

I still use wood chisels from 1850ish vintage and some of our bigger wrenches when needed are quite ancient. It's rare now to find a need for them just at home.

But, they are here anyway.

Considered the same, something USA made in the 50's or 60's may not be as good quality as something china made in this century. But I was raised in a family that was pro union so USA made still means something to me.

 

[micromind]

Pawnshop, Goodwill, etc.

No possible way I would ever throw away a perfectly good tool.

 

[Nofries]

Obviously the real relics of the past aren't ever the best choice. And the old standards aren't going to be compatible with now most things using metric fasteners.

I actually use standard more than metric, my daily driver is a work truck and I am at the point in my life I can afford to pay someone to fix/maintain the daily vehicles.
I have a 1978 CJ 5 that is ALL standard, I rarely work on my sons Cherokee that is a mix of Standard and metric.
My profession is sitting at a desk or supervising in the field no need/use of tools.

Define "vintage" please.
Some of my everyday wrenches and sockets are 4 to 6 decades old.

Vintage to me is pre 1970. Nothing is antique.
Many of the tools I am wondering what to do with are from 50's and 60's

Google tells me Vintage is 20-90 years old Antique is 100+
@rust in the eye what is "your" definition of vintage.

 

[four.cycle]

errrr... I bought most of my "use every day" tools in the early 70s... so... are they vintage yet?

 

[Astro_Pneumatic_Tools]

If not daily then most days

 

[RTM]

I am a woodworker, and probably 80% of my tools are older than 1950. Plan is to use most of them.

I have some of Grampa's tools here, he was a WWII pool mechanic. I don't wrench on the vehicles here much, but have no concerns about pulling the tools out to use for household projects.

I have a few of dads's woodWorking tools, they are 1960-70s, so not great quality. They sit up high to remind me that even mid tier tools can turn out nice work.

I do have some antiques that gets used, and one or two valuable ones that don't. None are mounted for display, but inside on a bookcase.

 

[Dave455]

Use occasionally as needed.

The only reason not to is that most vintage tools are SAE and most modern needs are metric.

If you are in an industry that uses SAE, then the vote is “use every day”.

You would need to pay a lot of money to match the quality of some of those older tools.

 

[ararat]

Considered the same, something USA made in the 50's or 60's may not be as good quality as something china made in this century. But I was raised in a family that was pro union so USA made still means something to me.

50's and 60's era made in USA should be plenty good enough to use.

I have my "collectable" tools in an old toolbox and sometimes use one from that box. My SAE tools are all vintage Craftsman, Bonney, New Britain, etc. I'm not a pro either.

My woodworking hand tools are all over 100 years old and I use them unless they are too fragile or valuable.

 

[ecotec]

Almost every single day.

Whether a vintage or antique tool is as good as a modern tool in the same category is really the question.

I use punches, chisels, hammers, files, pullers, extensions, Vise-Grips, and a lot of other tools made before I was born (early 1970’s) all the time.

I have a ball pein hammer made before I was born in my work tools that I use every day. I used it yesterday.

I, also, have a vintage file in my work tools.

Most vintage tools are just not as good as modern tools. I make an effort to pare down my work tools often. If I don’t think that I will use a tool on the job that I am on… I take it home. Right now I am working out of a Veto CB-LD. It is a medium size bag. I only have room for what I really need.

At home, I use vintage tools much more often.

In some categories, like metal files, vintage is king. Are they measurably better? I don’t care… they are much much cheaper and they are made in USA. I can buy a vintage file made in USA for $.50… or I can buy a new file made in Brazil for $20. Unless you absolutely need a file right this minute… why would you consider buying a new file. It doesn’t even make sense to me. That opinion carries over, for me, to a lot of categories of vintage tools where the vintage ones work as well as the new ones.

Another category in which vintage is “better” is regular wooden handled ball Pein hammers. You can get the vintage ones regularly for $1-$3 in great condition and they are made in USA.

Vises… unless you live somewhere where you can’t find vises, regularly, for cheaper than new… why would you buy new? I have two Wilton bullet vises. I spent less than $100 on both of them put together.

If vintage tools are worth using… I use them. If they are not worth using, I get rid of them. I am not saving any tools so that they are in better condition when I die…

 

[i84x]

Would depend on what it is and its condition etc for me.
I use some spanners that are considered vintage (made in the 60s) everyday but i also have some sockets that are getting pretty worn and just live as spares in my main store box.
Other stuff like old sizings (BA and Whitworth for example) exist for the odd times i need them so are vintage and barely used.

 

[Shiftless]

Here on GJ it seems easy to get rid of tools that you no longer want to have clogging up your tool box drawers and other storage spaces. For example, I recently obtained a very nice vintage quick release clamp on vise. It was larger than most of my others on the display rack so I cleared out some of the lesser value clamp on vises to make space. I took pictures and boxed up 5 little vises. I made a listing on the GJ classified thread and they sold in one day.
Sure, it would have been easier and quicker to donate them. I make runs a few times per year to donate household goods and old clothes anyway. Living in a city I drive right past my favorite thrift store to get to the hardware store so it’s no trouble.
But somehow it feels better to get old tools into the hands of fellow GJ members.

(And a few extra bucks for beer is always welcome. )

 

[tarmy]

My gramps and dad gave me their tools when they passed…they are all over my shops and get used as they are good quality and in good condition. Tools are not safe queens…use them.

 

[rust in the eye]

I actually use standard more than metric, my daily driver is a work truck and I am at the point in my life I can afford to pay someone to fix/maintain the daily vehicles.
I have a 1978 CJ 5 that is ALL standard, I rarely work on my sons Cherokee that is a mix of Standard and metric.
My profession is sitting at a desk or supervising in the field no need/use of tools.


Vintage to me is pre 1970. Nothing is antique.
Many of the tools I am wondering what to do with are from 50's and 60's

Google tells me Vintage is 20-90 years old Antique is 100+
@rust in the eye what is "your" definition of vintage.

For me? I'll apply "vintage" to older items I'm selling if there is any chance of it being a collectible or a desired earlier version of something. Vintage= $$, old = $
My 50 year old combo wrenches and sockets? Old. Same age tappet wrenches? Vintage.

 

[Beerhippie]

I'm a "vintage" guy who uses his "vintage" tools to work on his "vintage" vehicles--and around the shop at work. I'd say more than half of our tools are over thirty years old. Why replace them when they still get the job done as well as or better than new?

My vehicles are now all metrical--and about half of my metrical tools are "vintage", but I use a LOT of fractional around the brewery and pub. Plumbing is still all fractional.

The only tools I no longer use at all are the Whitworth, but most of those went with my last--ever--British Leyland. I don't even keep a can of replacement electrical smoke around anymore.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

Just sat down to cool off after dismounting a large ZTR tire. I used an old car body clamp that belonged to my father-in-law to break the bead, and some tire irons that belonged to my great-grandfather to dismount it. My vintage, 65 year old body was sweating and occasionally grunting, but the rest of the tools all did their jobs without complaint. If the rain holds off and I hold up to the tire work, I’ll be pouring concrete footings later for a small deck and using a trowel that my grandfather used for decades and a small sledge that belonged to the same great-grandfather.

A few things are retired and sit in the tool box for the memories.

 

[CGarage]

I would say that half of my tools were manufactured during the 60s to 80s era— and bought new.

I own WW2 era and “pre-war” tools, but I am not sure I would want to use them every day because I am aware of war time materials rationing, and inconsistent metallurgy that resulted from this. So in high stress use, there is more of a chance of failure. And we have come a long way from the tools of the 1940s and earlier.

Some of the best made and finished tools in my opinion were from the 60s era.

 

[micromind]

I started wrenching on stuff (cars, construction, heavy equipment, farm machinery, etc.) in the late 60s. Like most others, back then I didn't know the difference between good tools and junk ones so I bought tools based mainly on price but sometimes, I'd spend a bit more on the 'good ones'.

I still have a good part of the cheap tools I bought back then........I've broken some, lost some, loaned some out and never got back, but they still get used occasionally.

 

[Gmonkee]

For me antique is 1800-1930's as most of the standards used on them are now unused. I have a pile of ancient standards tools that only fit new stuff by chance.
Metals quality wasn't always good compared to anything modern.

After the first world war the US and England decided to start converting to SAE and metric slowly, by the 2nd war it was fairly settled if you wanted to make war materials that's what you used.


Therefore 1940's to current times may be vintage but the standards and styles are established making pretty much most of it still usable today.
The only real changes are ratchet wrenches are taking a huge market share since they became affordable.

 

[Dave455]

After the first world war the US and England decided to start converting to SAE and metric slowly, by the 2nd war it was fairly settled if you wanted to make war materials that's what you used.

In actual fact, the U.K. never adopted anything other than “British Standard” (British Standard Whitworth, British Standard Fine or British Association) till after the second world war.

Indeed, it was the problems of having two different systems of fasteners during the war, combined with the very real prospect of having to fight another, that persuaded the U.K, the U.S, and Canada to work together on one common system.

The result, technically, is “Unified” rather than SAE, but as the wrench sizes follow SAE sizing, that’s what the tools have always been referred to. In the U.K. the term A/F is used, meaning that the wrench sizes follow indicated is measured “across flats”.

From this side of the pond, where I find myself working regularly with three different standards (metric having confused things further) I’m quite jealous of the U.S, where essentially one set of easily understood wrenches can be used on anything manufactured for over a century.

Indeed, the U.S. had an opportunity to retain that system till today, but allowed itself to be dictated to by accountants, who just wanted everything cheaper (for themselves of course, not the mechanics who had to go out and buy more tools!)

 

[Gmonkee]

I am just happy to see metric is taking the lead in the world.
If they could only figure out how to get threads in 6mm bolts down from three options to just one. The bucket-O-bolts never has the 1.25 when that's the right one.
Trying to teach the apprentice fractions on top of the mechanical stuff was a challenge, then tossing in metric equivalent really made it fun. The schools skipped that part around here.
Spent more time educating than working some days.

 

[Dave455]

I am just happy to see metric is taking the lead in the world.
If they could only figure out how to get threads in 6mm bolts down from three options to just one. The bucket-O-bolts never has the 1.25 when that's the right one.
Trying to teach the apprentice fractions on top of the mechanical stuff was a challenge, then tossing in metric equivalent really made it fun. The schools skipped that part around here.
Spent more time educating than working some days.

I think I would broadly agree with that. Particularly ISO metric

The old guys, from all the countries involved (despite spending their lives working with other systems) who drew it up knew exactly what they were doing and conceived a system that’s relatively easy to work with, from a threading point of view.

The only retrograde step, as far as I can see, was replacing the perfectly logical BA system (where each screw is a fixed percentage smaller than the previous) this ensuring that the steps between sizes get smaller as the screws get smaller.

In the automotive world, I find most things are held together with about 3 sizes of bolt, and it’s relatively easy to substitute 6, 8 and 10 mm for 1/4, 5/16 and 3/8.

My only other complaint is that the slow switch to metric coincided with, or was more likely related to, the race to the bottom as regards fastener quality. So, whereas I can dig out any old bolt made to the appropriate British (or American) Standard, and I know it will be good, it can be more of a lottery with metric!

 

[john.k]

Fractions for modern kids .....I gave a list of sintered bushes I need to a kid in the bearing shop ,all fractional sizes ...... "No ,no ,no ......these numbers are doing my head in ".....Off out the back ,and the manager comes out.......you are intimidating the staff ....what do you want ......I want these bushes ............ Anyway ,he brought out a box of sintered bushes ,and gave me the lot .....Thats all we have and wont reorder .

 

[MushCreek]

Heck, even my Bridgeport mill is older than 1970. My daily use wrenches are a set of S-K combination wrenches I bought new in the late '60's. I only have a few wall hangers; everything else has to earn its keep.

 

[Orangina]

Hello from Germany ,

here, anything older than 100 years is considered "antique" –
whereas the imprecise term "vintage" is applied to items that are more than 20 years old.

My house is antique, some of my cars date back to the 1970s with license plate for historic cars older than 30 years - making them more than just vintage - and many of my tools also fall somewhere between antique and vintage. Some of these tools were originally designed for this old stuff - and are therefore still in use today. Many good, old or new tools can last longer than a human lifetime.

(alongside a modern lifestyle featuring solar energy and the internet and 3d printing or welding - as well as todays tools for these).


Things don't always simply get better. Some things today are merely manufactured more efficiently and profitably…

regards,

 

[Stubby1743]

I am old enough to have been taught the imperial system of weights and measurers at school. At secondary school we used inches and fractions in first woodwork, and then metalwork classes and also in Engineering Drawing classes (I gained O Level GCSE in ED). For many years now I have used metric measurements for any hobby projects and I would not dream of using imperial fractional ones. The metric measurements are so much easier to work with.

My father was a very practical capable guy having been in the Royal Navy from a boy entrant through the 1930's and 1940's (therefore all through WW2). He had a good selection of imperial spanners and (unusually for the UK) a Craftsman =V= imperial socket set. He never owned any metric tools. By the time he owned a car with metric fasteners he was too old to be doing his own maintenance on it.

As a result of the above, the first tool that I bought for myself was a 1/2" drive 13mm 12pt Elora socket bought in 1969 for the head bolts on my 1965 Lambretta TV200 scooter. I still have that socket which shows some chrome loss and although it is still useable, I have retired it and keep it for sentimental reasons.

My first car was a Hillman Imp which had imperial fasteners, and although dad had suitable spanners, I bought myself a set of imperial Gordon deep offset double ring spanners, from Halfords.

Over a period of 50 years or so I have accumulated a large collection of quality hand tools in both imperial and metric sizes. I do like British tools of the 40's and 50's and I would not hesitate to use any of them if the need arose. That is what tools are for.

 

[Banjorear]

I have old Fords ('28-'49) and pick up KR Wilson, Snap On, Manzel tools made specifically for jobs done on these cars. They have been life savers.

Snap On tapered hub steering wheel puller and king and perch pin press/pullers in particular. Invaluable

 

[niget2002]

I use every tool no matter what vintage. Most of my woodworking tools are older than I am (lathe, bandsaw, jointer). I inherited a bunch of my grandfather's tools. I think of him every time I use them.

 

[zmotorsports]

Kind of dates me to answer this but I've been wrenching for 4 decades so most of my tools are considered "vintage" by today's standards, so yes, I use them every day.

I have a few from my mentor that are much older than that I still use as well. I don't have tools as collector's pieces, just tools to use that serve a purpose.

 

[Nofries]

Kind of dates me to answer this but I've been wrenching for 4 decades so most of my tools are considered "vintage" by today's standards, so yes, I use them every day.

I have a few from my mentor that are much older than that I still use as well. I don't have tools as collector's pieces, just tools to use that serve a purpose.

I am in the same boat but do not use tools for my profession, only maintenance and hobbies. Fixing my Jeep or others occasionally. I have decide to incorporate my FIL tools into mine and pass some to my son. When I do pick up a file, wrench or whatever I will be reminded of my FIL who loved turning wrenches on his 79 Malibu and 55 Belair.

 

[mikegt4]

I use vintage tools everyday, not because they are vintage but because I bought them when I started accumulating tools circa late 1960's-early 1970's and they still work just fine. Hand tools are mostly Craftsman as are tools that I inherited from my Dad, most everything that he purchased (not just tools) came from Sears.

 

[finn]

I usually don’t discriminate when I reach for a tool with a couple of exceptions.

I defer to the Plomb 3/8” breaker bar’s age and rarely use it for serious work, and I prefer combination wrenches from the sixties or newer for most hobby tasks. Tools from the pre WWII era are largely ornamental.

Likewise, I rarely reach for the SnapOn or Gearwrench tools, unless it’s a mission critical job.

Reflecting on it, I suppose I like the tools that were popular when I was in my teens and early twenties in the late sixties to early eighties.

The Plomb breaker bar and a Plomb claw hammer were probably from my grandfather’s estate.