More Old Tools from Sunnyside

[lambo13]

Made a trip back to Sunnyside (see this thread) and this time helped clean out the guest house (former slave quarters/school house as the local lore has it) and the main house basement. Needless to say there was a treasure trove of old stuff.

I brought back plenty of amazing antiques, mostly junk, but family junk, so more like treasures. Also found a steel lockbox half buried in the old smokehouse with slides from the early 1950's. Hand cleaned each one, had them developed, and gave my mom a slideshow she'd never forget with pics of her parents and grandparents.

Anyhow, here is the tool haul. I basically grabbed everything I saw though I'm sure there are plenty that I missed. Overall it's a random assortment and nothing too valuable, but are a couple of interesting ones. Not many maker's marks.

1. The Edison Mimeograph is a neat piece. Going to take a lot to clean it up and the barrel has some peeling, so not sure exactly what they were printing with it.

2. The 'Secret Key' magnet is kind of neat. Nothing in the leather sheath.

3. The handle in the upper left looks like it belongs to cutlery, but there doesn't appear to be anything broken off the end. It just ends with a slightly rounded face.

4. Any idea about that wooden handle'd blade in the middle bottom? And what about the odd wrench with the bolt pattern handle? It looks broken but isn't...

5. The Yankee brand screwdriver still in the box is neat. I need to look at it more closely, but I did see there was a place to add oil to the end of it? The snips in the lower right are interesting with a strange spring between the handles.

Nothing too amazing, but I have a hell of a good time digging through that old place and my grandpa is glad for the tools to find a new home.

 

[woody 73]

The one knife next to the chisels on both sides with the slight bend reminds me of a Linoleum knife used to cut floor tiles. To the right of that knife and next to the silver chisel is an old tack puller.

Back in 1960's they used to sell those little secret key boxes, my Father installed it under the basement window and I can not tell you how many times that little box saved my bacon!

Very nice tools

 

[jakemac]

Any idea about that wooden handle'd blade in the middle bottom?

They may have been tobacco knives.

The snips in the lower right are interesting with a strange spring between the handles.

These are pruning shears, I remember them being used on rose bushes.

 

[jeffmoss26]

Very cool stuff!!

 

[WWIIjeep]

4. Any idea about that wooden handle'd blade in the middle bottom? And what about the odd wrench with the bolt pattern handle? It looks broken but isn't...

The curved blade knife is probably a tobacco knife as jakemac said. The straight-bladed one to the left of it is a seed potato knife. It's for cutting wedges out of seed potatoes for planting.

The wrench is for adjusting old-style hydraulic door closers. The hook spanner on the end is for adjusting the spring tension; the open-end on the other end is for the check valve and for actuator arm adjustment; and the hex openings are for the other fittings and plugs on the door closer body.

 

[lambo13]

Amazing info guys! Never in a million years would I have been able to identify some of these.

You guys rock! Thanks!

 

[Outlawmws]

Can you shoot a better pic of the odd multitool/pliers and the hammer next to them?

I'd have guessed a worn out linoleum hook knife on the Tobacco knife, but I've never lived in tobacco country...

 

[bonneyman]

Lots of good ole stuff there!

That Yankee is a great find. I used one just this last weekend doing some repair work on an old chair. I now see why those things were so popular. Oil 'er up and use it. If you buy these adapters, you'll be able to use 1/4" hex bits.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=57809&cat=1,43411,43417

 

[lambo13]

Can you shoot a better pic of the odd multitool/pliers and the hammer next to them?

I'd have guessed a worn out linoleum hook knife on the Tobacco knife, but I've never lived in tobacco country...

Nothing too exciting about the pliers I don't think... unless you see something I don't!

And you know, the house is in the Northern Neck of Virginia where there is plenty of tobacco, but then again looking at pics online that thing sure could be a linoleum knife also. Hard to say!

 

[lambo13]

Lots of good ole stuff there!

That Yankee is a great find. I used one just this last weekend doing some repair work on an old chair. I now see why those things were so popular. Oil 'er up and use it. If you buy these adapters, you'll be able to use 1/4" hex bits.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=57809&cat=1,43411,43417

Awesome!! I've never used or seen a Yankee screwdriver and was playing with it the other night and found that the shaft pops out and will turn the bit by pushing against it - slick!

What a neat tool.

 

[Outlawmws]

I've spent the past five minutes trying to grasp exactly how those are used. I think they are pretty cool. They seem to me a hybrid between Channel locks, a Pipe wrench, and vise gripes, (sans the locking mechanism)

I'm assuming there is a certain amount of looseness where the threaded part of one handle goes through the other? then the other jaw slides and make a setting for how wide they go?

Hammer pic please?

 

[genevabuck]

What is the Craftsman screwdriver with the blue thing on the blade?

 

[Dieselbutterfly]

snap on has those same type of ''pipe wrench'' type pliers on the truck

 

[rickhigginshtbr]

is that yankee a North Bro's or Stanley? I love those things, have a few of them, and pretty sure I have the Craftsman equivalent to that one.

 

[WWIIjeep]

What is the Craftsman screwdriver with the blue thing on the blade?

It's a screw-holding screwdriver missing the spring-loaded screw-holding fingers.

When new it looked like the one at the bottom here:



No great loss that it has missing parts. Even when all the parts are present they don't work very well. The split-blade wedge-type at the top works far better. If the OP is really lucky, when he takes it to Sears for a replacement, that type won't be available anymore and they'll substitute the other type.

 

[lambo13]

Outlaw - nothing too exciting about the hammers, though an interesting horseshoe mark on the one.

WWIIjeep is right - missing parts on the screwdriver.

Rick - It's a North Bro's, anything make it different from a Stanley version?

- Rob

 

[jakemac]

That screwdriver is junk as it stands, so .... cut the tip off, lose the plastic, and grind a point on it. TA-DA, now you have a new scribe. Bend a hook in it and it becomes an o-ring pick.

 

[WWIIjeep]

Outlaw - nothing too exciting about the hammers, though an interesting horseshoe mark on the one.

That's an early Atha Tool Co. trademark. Used mainly before Stanley bought Atha Tool Co. in 1913, and maybe for a little while afterward.

Rick - It's a North Bro's, anything make it different from a Stanley version?

Just older. Stanley bought North Bros. Mfg. in 1946.

 

[rickhigginshtbr]

Rick - It's a North Bro's, anything make it different from a Stanley version?

Just older. Stanley bought North Bros. Mfg. in 1946.

What he said, plus now I want it, with the box, or at least more detailed pics of the box, never seen one before.

 

[Outlawmws]

Both hammers are cool for different reasons. the sheet metal hammer due to its age and condition (usually they are beat to **** when that old) and the little metal working one as its so small. Probably old too considering where it came from and what it was with.

Nice finds I think!

 

[Hornman]

The spring loaded snips are probably toenail clippers since the are chrome plated. There are some pruning shears with the same type rolled spring, but the springs are usually blued. The jaws are a dykes type which argues for toenail clippers. Pruning shears are usually anvil or bypass cutters.

 

[lambo13]

Sorry to bring this old thread back, but I got around to cleaning up a few of them and thought I'd share some of the brands I found there at Sunnyside.

Tools are still wet from some anti-rust spray. I typically take the rust off these old tools, hang them on the pegboard and put them back into service.

1. K&B Co. (New Haven, CT) tack puller? nail puller? pry?

2. J.P. Danielson & Co. (Jamestown, NY) slip joint pliers

3. Champion DeArment Channellock (Meadville, PA) No. 420 tongue & groove pliers

4. Eck Schwede pipe wrench (Germany?)

5. J.P. Danielson Co. Inc. (Jamestown, NY) pipe wrench

Pictures are making them look a little more rough than they really are. They still have plenty of years left in them yet.

 

[skiingman]

That 1/2 inch socket set was a hundred bucks? Wonder how long ago that was.

 

[jeffmoss26]

Very cool! More information about this anti-rust spray!

 

[demographic]

The "Neat spring" on the snips is a Volute Spring, often found on garden secateurs.

 

[lambo13]

Ahh brilliant! Had never seen nor heard of volute springs before!