This may be the most impressive woodworking feat I’ve ever seen. The photo above was made in the mid-1800s by a Mason named Henry O. Studley, a piano maker and carpenter. Materials include mahogany, rosewood, walnut, ebony, and mother-of-pearl, so finely crafted that each tool clicks snugly into place and remains when the wall-mounted box is vertical, even though there are no built-in locks. Two layers on one side and three on the other are enough to store around three hundred tools in 39″ x 20″ x 9″.

It takes a Toolmonger with a heart of stone to avoid falling in love with this remarkable chest. An expert craftsman with a lifetime’s experience in a demanding trade made this practical and fantastically beautiful box from scraps, and was probably the kind to use it every day. If this were your work, imagine the little twinge of satisfaction every time you reached for a tool. Mr. Studley’s work is a practical, gorgeous display of his incredible skill, and he’d undoubtedly be proud to see his work on display at its current home in the Smithsonian.

The H.O. Studley tool chest [Fine Woodworking]
Henry O. Studley [Wikipedia]

Pictured above is my very own “YANKEE” No. 41 (from North Bros. Mfg. Co. in Philadelphia, PA) that I got many (many) years ago from my dad. I have no idea how old it is. My dad may have gotten it from my grandfather, but I can no longer ask either one of them. Soon after I got it, I broke one of the bits, but was able to stop into my friendly local hardware store and pick up a set of replacements — those were the good ol’ days. It’s an oldie but a goodie that I still like to use. In fact, I recently broke — well, kind of bent it (see above picture) — a bit, and found that replacement bits are now somewhat harder to find and getting expensive as they’re often classified as antiques or collector’s items. Fortunately, a bit of web searching turned up a possible solution: a shank adapter complete with bits.

It’s available for $32 (plus $3 shipping). Another alternative is the $20 set of eight spare bits from Garrett Wade’s push drill that, they say, “should” fit an old Stanley push drill.

What do you think? Should I modify the old classic so it can use standard bits, or should I try the spare bits from Garrett Wade?

Shank Adapter [Manufacturer's Site]
Garrett Wade [Website]

Sometimes the answer to the famous “What is this thing?” shop question is as fruitful as it was for reader ghb624 who was cleaning out some old hand-me-down gear and came across this piece of tool history. As it turns out, some folks tracked it down for him.

This was among the items in a box of odds & ends which I inherited. It came to me along with an old Goodell Pratt lathe which had been in the family for 60-some years. I have no idea what it is used for, and am going to post a query on an appropriate discussion forum to see what I can find out.

I found a downloadable copy of the Goodell Pratt catalog for 1926, and here is the exact item:

All right: that is officially cool. Not only does he know what it is now, but it’s pretty clear that this is where it came from. For some reason seeing a direct link to the past like this always puts a smile on our faces.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

This anonymous British text from the 1860s was designed as “an instructive text on the importance, dignity, and techniques of labor.” It details the work of over thirty trades including millers, sugar refiners, and shoemakers, with over 700 illustrations — many of tools of the time period. If you’re into antique tools or the history of hand craftsmanship, this book is an inexpensive (street pricing runs around $11) and interesting guide to the kind of work your great-great-grandfather might have done.

Book of Old-Time Trades and Tools [Dover Publications]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Street Pricing [Google]

I’ve been cleaning up all the tools for the ShopSmith, and it’s an uphill battle — however, the process got a little more interesting when I got to the scroll saw and found out it’s the only attachment that’s not SS-branded.  It was obviously made to work with the ShopSmith since it sports the telltale driveshaft that hooks into the headstock, but this is the first time I’ve run across a Dunlop brand power tool.

It’s still got oil in it, though as you can see from the pictures, some has leaked out over the years.  Other than some rust it still looks good, too, and it’ll look better after a good cleaning.  My Dremel scroll saw has a deeper throat by almost a foot, so it’ll see most of the action in the shop.  But I’ll give the Dunlop a go or two, for no other reason than it’s old and interesting.

Does anyone know anything about these old units, like when they were made and what other products were in the line?  Let us know in comments.

Last week we saw a sled that carries heavy objects — this week we’re stepping up to wheels.  It looks like you attach this rig’s hooks to one end of each log;  then we’re guessing you drag ‘em out of the forest by ox or horse team.

This style of wood removal was probably slow and tedious, not to mention a workout for the animals, but back in the day it was the best technology to be had:  one or two horsepower and a few wheels.  I’d love to watch the guys on Ax Men be handed this stuff and see if they could get enough timber off the mountain.

Thanks to reader Goblirschrolf for the sweet photo.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Ever since I began shaving I’ve used the big-brand cartridge razors, until recently I had a revelation:  I hate spending money on overpriced razor cartridges.  My local knife store turned me on to the old-school pleasure of wet-shaving with a double-edge safety razor.  Blades cost 25 cents apiece — and there’s something cool about shaving the way my grandfather used to shave.

There are many options in razors — I use a vintage 1950s Gillette — but one of the best razors that balances cost and quality is the Merkur 33C safety razor.  It runs about $26 without blades. If you’re interested, check out Badger and Blade where you can find anything and everything related to shaving.

Merkur 33C [West Coast Shaving]
Street Pricing [Google]

The thing about the world’s largest anything is that there can only be one.  Each of these things is in a class all by itself, and we tend to give them a healthy respect — especially when, as is the case with the Creusot steam hammer, it can flatten us like a pancake.

This huge-ass steam hammer was built in 1877 by Schneider and Co. in the French town of Le Creusot. Its big selling point was the unholy ability to deliver a blow with up to 100 tons of force. We’re guessing it made a little noise, too.

The funny part is that the forge work it was responsible for is now done in a different manner — so a steam-powered machine that was built over a hundred years ago is still king of all hammers.

World’s Largest Hammer [New York Times]

Our ability to use tools is one of humanity’s defining characteristics.  For as long as we’ve been around, tools have made our work easier and helped us accomplish tasks we never could’ve done without them.  Recently scientists in Malaysia discovered some very old tools indeed — 1.8 million years old, give or take a few.

Malaysian archaeologists have announced the discovery of stone tools they believe are … the earliest evidence of human ancestors in Southeast Asia.

The stone hand-axes were discovered last year in the historical site of Lenggong in northern Perak state, embedded in a type of rock formed by meteorites which was sent to a Japanese lab to be dated.

“We received news from Japan two weeks ago which said it is 1.83 million years old, so this find shows the existence of human beings there 1.83 million years ago,” archaeology team leader Mokhtar Saidin told AFP.

We feel proud that these ancient folks left their legacy in the form of tools.  It makes me wonder if someone’s going to be digging up my 1/2”-drive breaker bar two million years from now.

Malaysian scientists find stone tools ‘oldest in Southeast Asia’ [AFP Full Article]

If I happen to run across Antiques Roadshow playing on PBS, I almost always see some kind of tool-related item being appraised in the show somewhere. This plane/ax combo owned by some lucky bastard in Tampa is a fine example of gear you just can’t have.

If you watch the video you can make out all the handwork and fine carving in the top and sides of the piece. It’s a work of art all by itself, but I’m more than a little curious to know what kinds of projects a plane like that builds.

The appraiser valued these at $3,000 to $4,000, but the owner said he’s not going to sell them. Of course it would benefit everyone else who wanted a crack at ‘em if he just ran home and slammed ‘em up on eBay — however we’re hoping that didn’t happen.

18th-Century Austrian Tools [Roadshow Archive]

It never ceases to amaze me how basic implements like a sharpened stone and bits of carefully formed sticks coupled with a little human brainwork can literally raise a mountain in the middle of the desert.  I’m reminded of this by a sweet article over at reshafim.org that talks about the composition and development of ancient Egyptian tools. These people did extraordinary things thousands of years ago with a few simple items — this idea flies completely in the face of those folks who can’t do anything without a shop full of the latest gear.

Just to be fair, the whole point of modern tools is that a few or one person can do the work of many, and faster. I bet if I had a workforce 10,000 strong I could whip up a few bookcases before lunch, but since I don’t I’ll just have to take my modern equipment and do it solo in a tenth the time it would’ve taken someone back then.

Composition and Development of Ancient Egyptian Tools [reshafim]

In 1902 sponge divers discovered 81 fragments of an ancient, unknown tool at the bottom of the sea near the Greek island of Antikythera. Dated around the first century B.C., this early “computer” was the most complex technology of its time – and for another thousand years. Originally thought to be an astrolabe, the mechanism tracked and predicted the cycles of the solar system and the movement of heavenly bodies.

Beginning in fall 2005, a team of British and Greek scientists and researchers used innovative digital imaging and 3-D X-ray technology to take high-res pictures of the mechanism, inside and out, including detailed inscriptions that offer insight into the tool’s functions. Now a London museum curator, Michael Wright, has built a working replica – the first to incorporate all the details of the original, including the Greek and Egyptian calendars, markers indicating locations of the moon and five planets known to the ancient Greeks, and predictions of solar and lunar eclipses. The three dials even include a movable dial to account for leap years.

The Antikythera mechanism was found among the remains of a Roman merchant ship. As it turns out, just like with art, architecture, and the gods, the Romans knew a good Greek tool when they saw one.

Video of Wright’s working replica [The Guardian UK]
Antikythera Mechanism Research Project

It’s good to be Norm.  Sometimes it seems like those New Englanders have all the fun, and I can’t say I blame ‘em — if I had a chance to go to the Brimfield Antique Show in Massachusetts and paw all over an eighty-year-old Rosewood level, I’d do it, too.

Sure, the sellers at this thing are probably well-aware of how valuable their merchandise is, and they might tell you to “stuff it” if you offered ‘em a penny less than they thought their tool was worth — but just getting your hands on something like that would make it worth going.  Flipping through the pictures of his little stroll through hand-tool history made us drool in envy.

Of course, Norm’s been doing New Yankee Workshop since I was in grade school, so he might be able to spot a deal I would walk right by.

The Feel Of A Well-Worn Hammer [This Old House]

The Archimedes drill predates the Yankee screwdriver by a few hundred years, but it works much the same way. When you drive the handle down in a linear motion, the small chuck at the right end of the threads spins the drill.

I found the picture above on an antique site — this particular Archimedes drill was designed for jewelers, to drill tiny holes in soft metal. I’m sure the torque is nothing to speak of, and the RPM is somewhere just above a plain old screwdriver, but this actually makes it perfect for a few applications.

The drill below, sold by Garrett Wade, accepts bits smaller than 1/16″. Though tiny bits are easy to break, with a drill like this you’ve got way more control and will probably see the flex in the bit before you break it.

The fact that you can buy this tool new makes the antique even cooler — because somebody is still using these.

Antique Jeweler’s Drill [Go Antiques]
Archimedes Screw Drills [Garrett Wade]

I’m cheating — the owner of this tool told me what it was, but I had to ask. He said it was frozen stationary, but he finally managed to loosen it up. The stone on the right-hand side now spins and moves back and forth in an arc when you crank the handle. He mentioned it’s about a hundred years old, but I don’t have any more detail than that.

Post your guesses here before you check out the notes I posted on my Flickr account with an additional picture.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Before handheld can openers, getting to the food inside a tin can required a hammer and chisel — or, for many soldiers, bayonets, knives, or even rifle fire. The first claw-shape, lever-type openers were developed in Britain and America in the 1850s by cutler Robert Yates in Middlesex in 1855, and by Ezra J. Warner of Waterbury, CT, in 1858. The U.S. Army adopted Warner’s design for the Civil War and issued the bull’s head can opener (above) with its rations of canned “bully beef,” or shredded corned beef mixed with gravy. (British and Australian soldiers regularly consumed bully beef, too, usually with hard tack crackers and, on Christmas Day, whiskey.)

Warner’s patent came on the heels of the development of thinner steel cans, which helped make the can opener more viable and less dangerous. From American Heritage:

[The lever-type was] an opener with a pointed blade that the user pressed, rather than stabbed, into the can. A metal guard kept the point from penetrating too far, to “perforate the tin without causing the liquid to fly out.” A second, curved blade could then be worked to gnaw along the rim and remove the lid. Warner’s patent claimed, with more optimism than prudence, that “a child may use it without difficulty, or risk.”

The bull’s head opener was made of cast iron and often painted red, with the animal’s tail curving into the handle. A web article from the UK illustrates:

A two-part steel blade was fastened to the bull’s neck; one short vertical spike rising from the head intended to pierce a hole in the lid, and the other a cutting blade (under the chin of the bull) for see-sawing round the rim of the tin.

The bull’s head tin openers were produced up to the mid 1930’s and can still be found as a collector’s item — though old cans of bully beef are harder to find.

Article on Tin Openers [Research Pod]
History of the Can Opener [American Heritage]

This plumb bob level might look clunky next to a level with a bubble vial, but back in the day this may have been the only type of level you could make yourself, unless you had moderate glassblowing skills. Union Hill Antique Tools markets this particular level as “one of the great super-rare levels of the world. A Bradford Union Patented Cast Iron Inclinometer, Bradford PA. 18 inches long. Best one of 2 known.”

You can own this antique level for the price of a bulldozer, $15,000. Or, if you’re just looking for a good DIY project or a conversation piece, you could probably save a little money by making one yourself.

Bradford Level [Union Hill Antique Tools]

Before the days of the slick Snap-On or behemoth Waterloo Industry tool chests, machinists stored their tools in wooden machinist chests. Gerstner’s been making ‘em since 1906, and they remain the standard against which wooden machinist chests are measured.

In 1910 Gerstner designed the #41, a typical chest, to hold precision instruments for machinists. You can cover the #41’s seven lined drawers with a front lid, and you can lock the whole thing up — including the lined top tray — just like a contemporary machinist chest. Gerstner makes the chests with tongue and groove wood panels in your choice of golden oak, maple, cherry, or walnut. You can further customize the chest with hardware finishes and black or green felt. It also features a mirror mounted to the lid, one feature you don’t see too often in contemporary chests.

In today’s world the wooden chest has become more of a showpiece than an everyday necessity, and the prices reflect that — the #41 has a street price of $710 to $740 depending on what finish you decide on. Gerstner produces a “Gerstner International” line for those who want an economical option — the overseas manufacturers who make the International line hold themselves to less-strict standards. Either Gerstner USA or Gerstner International chests could become prize pieces to enjoy for a long time.

Gerstner #41 [Gerstner]
Via Amazon [What's This?]

This 1949 Craftsman catalog brings us back to the days of zoot suits, the jitterbug, explosive shop tools, guiltless gasoline consumption — and the good ole’ gasoline blowtorch.

Even before the modern technology of propane and butane cartridges, amateurs as well as professionals commonly used blowtorches for stubborn household problems like thawing frozen pipes, loosening jammed bolts, and even detecting freon leaks (due to the changing color of the flame). Plumbers used the torches to liquefy lead for sealing pipe joints, electricians used them for soldering wires, and painters for stripping paint from walls.

To operate these blowtorches, you fill the fuel tank about 3/4 full of gasoline, and then seal the fuel valves. A hand pump pressurizes the air, sending the fuel up a wick tube to the burner head. The wick tube contains a cotton wick about eight inches long, with half of it soaked in the fuel and the rest leading up to the burner.

Just past the wick tube, a screen filters out impurities before the fuel is burned. Finally, an evaporation chamber on the bottom of the blowtorch head builds pressure between the wick and the burner head. The fuel escapes through the orifice in the burner head, producing a very hot, blue flame and the familiar roar of the blowtorch.

If you’re worried about frozen pipes this winter, you can buy the antique Craftsman blowtorch pictured above for about $10 on eBay — the same price as in 1949. For the same (adjusted) price as back then, you can even fill it up with gasoline — just like the good old days.

Information on Blowtorches [Zangobob's Blowtorch Heaven]
Antique Craftsman Catalogs [Rose Antique Tools]