Recent content by AreBeeBee

Not sure how old exactly, but I have two J.M. King Button's patent pliers. The patent goes back to the immediate post-Civil War years (1867), but how long after that King (in Waterford, N.Y.) made them.....? I also have a Peck, Stow, & Wilcox bit brace that was probably made in the mid-late...

I never had a problem with that. But I did go through a couple pairs of Wallaby-clone shoes thanks to the edge on the rattrap pedals cutting into the gum-rubber soles. Then I started using shoes with tougher soles.... Realistically the Jeunet was a good bike for someone whose previous...

My one splurge buy for my French (Jeunet) 10-speed back in the early 1970s was a set of Campy cone wrenches. Still have them, though the Jeunet was stolen out of our garage more than 45 years ago. (Sigh.)

Looks great, Don! The jaws appear to meet parallel and unsprained, as are so many auto wrenches,

I have a 10-inch cobra-design wrench made by Knipex but badged as Craftsman, with COO stamped "Germany."

Although the sellers are not all the same guy(s), I've seen sellers do that sort of thing — leaving tools in open bins during bad weather — at flea markets here in the upper midwest too. It's a pattern of behavior apparently centered in the "sucker born every minute" school of sales.

We use a waterproof sheet (plastic backed with felt) a little larger than the tabletop to prevent just the situation that the OP mentions. Over this pad goes the tablecloth. All our tablecloths have had water, wine, beer, soup, and other liquids spilled on them, but the protective sheet just...

Thanks to all who replied. As I have an FF-soaked rag in a jar already, I'll use that to start with. As for jostling up against other files, each large one is in a high tech sleeve cut from a Cheerios box. The little guys are lying face up and separated in drawers lined with cardboard...

I have a Grobet file I picked up at the local ReStore for 50 cents. It had some spots of surface rust which went away after an hour's soak in Evapo, followed by my using a file card to clean the teeth. I'm thinking of wiping it down with Fluid Film to prevent or slow rust reforming on it. Good...

I don't display them, they are just stored here and there. Some lie on a bench next to the chunk of RR rail that serves as the anvil, others are sitting in a 5 gallon bucket, a few are hanging from floor joists (the shop is in the unfinished basement), and so on. Nothing at all special to see...

They vary greatly and the items sold turn over pretty quickly, except for the junk. I have several within half an hour's drive, and being retired it's easy to make frequent check-it-out visits. However, everything in there has been donated — if your area has tool donors, you can do quite well...

OK, RTM's photo shows what I was thinking of when I wrote. You use this kind of mallet when doing careful carving, as opposed to basic flat chisel work. I get it. But I'm not a carver, nor do I do dovetails, tenons/mortices, and similar kinds of joinery. My chisels are formerly beat-up bench...

This thread is about hammers and YesIHaveAHammer just raised a question I've been wondering about for some time. Why do all the pictures show people using cylindrical mallets for driving chisels? Doesn't make sense to me, but I'm probably ignorant in this. Me, I use your basic small(ish)...

Ever wander into a hardware store in some place you don't often visit, look around, not see anything you need, and still go by the fasteners section, and pick up a box or three of screws (wood, machine, whatever) in a likely size? You know, just in case?

Mileages always vary. Mine involves a Vic Classic (the little SD) in one front pocket, a 1960s Ulster BSA knife in a rear pocket, and a Fenix LD02 (AAA, rear button switch) flashlight in another front pocket. Over several years I tried a number of Leathermen — Micra, Squirt S4, Squirt P4...