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Just FYI, DeVoto wrote three books on or around the subject: The Course of Empire, Across the Wide Missouri (a book title I can never read without hearing the song lyric in my head), and 1846; The Year of Decision. Course is the least engaging (for me) as it covers a big sweep of time and the...

Lugz & Beer — There's a book that you may find useful, at least in part. It's the one on the left in the photo below. The set up in the photo was taken as part of a Blade Forums thread (short-lived, I think) on combining knives we have with related or appropriate books. Anyway, the Carl...

I think this reply is for both of you — Colin Fletcher's The Complete Walker books (I have all editions except the fourth) were fundamental for me many decades ago. Also his other books, including the Grand Canyon hike. In The Thousand Mile Summer, he walked north through California from the...

Own now (or once did): Samurai, Great Flying Stories. Have read: Bridges at Toko-Ri, Dam Busters, Escape From Colditz, Flying Saucers Are Real. Need to chase down: Sunk!, Deep Six, Calendar Epic. Great collection — thanks for showing!

MTP -- you asked for pics of the model 41 push drills. The bottom one is a Stanley/North stamped with Bell System. No idea as to year, but clearly after Stanley's acquisition of North Brothers, which occurred in 1946. When Bell bought the push drills and had them stamped is unknown to me. The...

You could likely keep the overall blade profile by carefully removing enough to get down past the eroded edge sections. Or simply call it done now and have a display item.

I have two of those Yankee drills, one of them being an ex-Bell System in fact. One's in the basement shop, the other is in the utility room hardware drawer. Both have full sets of newish drills (Garrett Wade) in them and I use them routinely for drilling small holes. Quicker and simpler than...

For what it's worth I have two of the Army Engineer pocket knives (with the U.S.A. shield) that Camillus made 1942-44. These are all steel except for the jigged bone scales, which I read came from cattle shinbones. These have the common camper or scout configuration: blade, can opener, bottle...

My understanding is that brass became a controlled metal as soon as we got in the war due to the need of it for cartridge and shell cases. I don't know how quickly the limit was lifted postwar.

Sounds good to me but to tell the truth, this is first time I've tried a restoration such as this. My usual approach with a hammer (say) is to sand the handle to get it as clean as seems good enough. Then stain it; I use a Minwax stain such as gunstock, red mahogany, dark walnut, etc. with...

Thanks! Yes, the grain came through nicely. I have a 40 year old Plumb ax with nearly all its original finish on the handle, and my observation is that the paint or stain the company used is somewhat more opaque than the dye. That is, the grain of the ax handle (hickory or ash presumably) is...

I picked up a 4 oz Plumb ballpeen at the local Restore; it was in excellent shape, but red paint on the handle had some bare spots and I decided to try restoring the handle's finish. Thanks to an Arizona friend who did a similar job on a Plumb bricklayer's hammer. I passed up the hardware and...

Good heavens! I do think I need a Channellock shop vac.....

I may have mentioned this before in some thread here. But a number of years ago to carve the Thanksgiving turkey for family and friends, I hauled out my Cattaraugus 225Q, shown here with its original sheath (top). Those were done by a sub-contractor and were surprisingly thin given the...

Hand size, intended use, personal history, and other factors are all in the mix — which is why I said my ranking was personal. And everyone's mileage will probably differ in some way. Enjoy!

There are many, many different sheath knives, but for me these RH-50s are just about the perfect type. Their only competition comes from the Marbles Ideal knives, which edge them out (sorry!) by just a tick. Yeah, Ka-Bars and Jet Pilot knives and others are all great in their individual ways...

Just a short observation based on the evidence in this thread and elsewhere — The internet has done absolutely terrible things to magazines by killing or at least severely reducing the advertising that's essential for their survival. Case in point: Family Handyman. Yes, I subscribe and, yes...

Don, that's a great revival job on that PSW brace. The chuck is their Samson model which was the first (I believe) that could lock up drill bits with circular and hex shanks, in addition to the standard tapered 4-sided ones. Other makers copied the design with minor mods. It also accepts...

Question -- how do you lock the jaws on a nut? I get it that it slides closed easily, but why doesn't it slide open just as easily?

And if the sharpening jig slips and spins up from the grinder wheel's rotation, the bit sleeves are all nicely angled outward to shoot the bit off into the scenery. What percentage of a full 360° circle does your anatomy occupy? Them's your odds of stopping a flyaway drill bit.