Sometimes you just don't know what you have.

[1967lemans]

When we got married,(8 years ago) I received my late father in-law's tools. Not knowing anything (they were all brands I had never heard of) I stashed most of them in some cardboard boxes (with the exception of a few box and open end wrenches) and used his tool chest to store the craftsman set I had. Figured I would save them as spares in case the CMAN's broke or got lost.
I decided to organize the spares for our son and take a peek at what I had. Well the box ends and open ends are all Armstrongs, the adjustables are all Protos. The old ratchets are a Fleet 166, Proto 5449, Armstrong 11-901 SK Wayne 45170, and a Herbrand S-10! Found a few old snap on (with cursive writing on it), MAC, and New Britton sockets.
Now thanks to this site I think I need some Plomb tools to ad to the mix.
So, what kind of stumble upon stories do you all have?

 

[jpickar]

When my FIL died 14 years ago I put all the tools in 5 gallon buckets and loaded up the 50's vintage Snap-on tool box, top and bottom.

Nothing much in the tools. A few snap-on and craftsman but mostly no name stuff. But he was in the 765th railway Batt. in WWII and brought home amost other things german railoroad tools and gauges. They are neat to have and look at.

What I have done in the last 4 years is buy a whole tool box full of tools as is as they come out from pawn at the pawn shop. It seems that I always find neat and enough good stuff to pay for most of the price of the tool box. Lots of Snap-on, Blue Point, Craftsman, etc. I keep the stuff I want and sell the rest.

John

 

[hickmlg09]

When I first moved to michigan my grandpa passed away a few months after and he had a bunch of tools as he worked on a lot of cars and things. I took my ex-boyfriend over there and he grabbed some tools. Told him to grab as much as he could as when my cuz moved in her took everything that was left there to the scrap yard. My dad got a lot of nice old craftsman tools. He had everything from from wood files to wrenchs and boxes. My dad even regrets not grabbing as much as he could after what my cuz did.