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Tool What is your oldest tool in the shed ?

Tool
Do you metal lead or babbitt in it? Then it's a tool.

I think you mean melt. But I don't think so, it's hammered copper. Looks home-made. It lived through 3 ancestral migrations. Each time it was used to hide coins under rice. Or so the family story goes.......
 
I think you mean melt. But I don't think so, it's hammered copper. Looks home-made. It lived through 3 ancestral migrations. Each time it was used to hide coins under rice. Or so the family story goes.......
Yes “melt:” autocomplete strikes again

If it’s hammered, it’s tool-adjacent?
 
Yes “melt:” autocomplete strikes again

If it’s hammered, it’s tool-adjacent?

Nice try...... LOL!

But now that you say that, you remind me that I also have a few arrow heads I've found but can't possibly date. Certainly pre musket era. Prolly pre 1800 and i suppose they could be as much as 10,000 years old. Since my farm is in the glacial terminal moraine anything is possible. Those ARE definitely tools!

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I have a third too, but I can't find it. Can't possibly be lack of organization so somebody must have borrowed it.....

Edit - my farm is littered with flint, but those three are the only arrow heads I've found. No spears or fleshing tools or axes. But I'm always looking.
 
Nice try...... LOL!

But now that you say that, you remind me that I also have a few arrow heads I've found but can't possibly date. Certainly pre musket era. Prolly pre 1800 and i suppose they could be as much as 10,000 years old. Since my farm is in the glacial terminal moraine anything is possible. Those ARE definitely tools!

View attachment 45478

I have a third too, but I can't find it. Can't possibly be lack of organization so somebody must have borrowed it.....

Edit - my farm is littered with flint, but those three are the only arrow heads I've found. No spears or fleshing tools or axes. But I'm always looking.
Thanks for reminding me: there was an arrow head amongst my Father’s stuff; I “think” I know where it is.
 
Nice try...... LOL!

But now that you say that, you remind me that I also have a few arrow heads I've found but can't possibly date. Certainly pre musket era. Prolly pre 1800 and i suppose they could be as much as 10,000 years old. Since my farm is in the glacial terminal moraine anything is possible. Those ARE definitely tools!

View attachment 45478

I have a third too, but I can't find it. Can't possibly be lack of organization so somebody must have borrowed it.....

Edit - my farm is littered with flint, but those three are the only arrow heads I've found. No spears or fleshing tools or axes. But I'm always looking.
Be careful you didn't piss off mrs. Susquatch she may be practicing....:p
 
1907 steel Russwin carpenter's square w/ my grandfather's initials stamped on it. I'd written about it earlier as a 1905. Mea culpa. I also have an old Union No 5 jack plane w/ his initials. Haven't tried to date that one yet. Also have an old 0-1" Handy micrometer, date unknown. In addition, I have a claw hammer that my father claimed my other grandfather brought over from the Ukraine when he immigrated, date unknown, but guessing late 19th century.
 
Great grandad Ryckman - who was a blacksmith in Coboconk, Ontario. I am fortunate to have his apprenticeship journeyman tools and his anvil. He made these tools to complete his apprenticeship. I think these date to 1880ish. You can see his initials ACR on the inside outside callipers.
Apparently they were mounted inside a wooden display box but my grandad dropped and then crushed the box with his foot with some elderly clumsiness.
 

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This is the Ryckman blacksmith shop in Coboconk. The guy in the apron standing in the door is him. The two boys sitting on the stump are my great uncle and my grandad is the baby. Oh a relative just told me g grandpa Albert Ryckman is the guy in the middle out front. Now we're uncertain... Cool photo - I have a copy on the mantle.
 

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My old Accurite press brake, I cannot date it because there is no info about the existence of the Manufacturer. Made in the US, but the address and patent gives me nada
 
Arrowheads? Maybe a couple...
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My g-grandfather knew a site that had been a regular encampment for a local tribe. He collected pieces, usually after a spring rain. My father carried on. The story goes that the first time my mother went, my dad was explaining what to look for as they walked a lane back towards the site. "Oh", said my mother, "you mean like this?" as she picked up the spear point in the centre of the above photo.

My dad also bought some pieces at local auctions. Another of his stories was getting laughed at by the auctioneer for being interested in a "box of old stones". Including the ax head above.

Craig
 

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Another of his stories was getting laughed at by the auctioneer for being interested in a "box of old stones". Including the ax head above.

Amazing how a plain old diamond just looks like another rock......

Nice story. I see similar things at auctions sometimes.
 
I have some of my grandfathers blacksmith tools, not sure if they were ones he made or brought from Ont. when he homesteaded in SK. Lots of old wrenches from equipment bought before i was ever thought of.
 
The oldest thing in my shop is a true antique but unfortunately it doesn’t work very well anymore. The newer models are totally different - almost weird. Far from useless but getting closer each day. Sometimes my wife just wants to get rid of it, but then I fix something so she keeps me around.
(It appears David and I have something in common).
 
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