Were tools better in the 80s?

[gregers]

ive got 1 of these in my cupboard at work,and surprisingly it comes in handy when doing a quick match/repair.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PLANE-COM...lectable_ToolsHasdware_RL&hash=item2ec37dd109

also got in its cardboard sleeve but not used is a (sandvic)henry disston.HUGE bloody thing .would love to get my hands on a decent disston though.

 

[Dave54]

ive got 1 of these in my cupboard at work,and surprisingly it comes in handy when doing a quick match/repair.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PLANE-COM...lectable_ToolsHasdware_RL&hash=item2ec37dd109

also got in its cardboard sleeve but not used is a (sandvic)henry disston.HUGE bloody thing .would love to get my hands on a decent disston though.

I've got the Stanley version of that combi plane. I used to do a lot of one off work, so it used to get used a fair bit. I used to use it to put a 3mm slot in drawer slips for rebated cedar drawer bottoms, and then staff bead the top edge of the slip with either the beading cutter, or if the timber was a bit difficult I'd use a scratch stock. So that the drawer bottom lay flush with the slips, and the bead hid any gap.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I suppose they are just about 80s tools - 1880s

 

[Dave54]

I suppose they are just about 80s tools - 1880s

I think I bought mine in the 1980's. . .

 

[gregers]

I suppose they are just about 80s tools - 1880s

cheeky sod

dave he's taking the rise out of you m8.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Not really. I've still got my Record #050 combi (used to have a #405, but alas no more), although it rarely gets use these days. Whenever you pull out anything like a shoulder plane, compass plane, carraige rebate, cabinet scraper, etc you invariably get one Herbert who hasn't ever seen one, doesn't know how it works and thinks it's pointless. Until, that is, you do something he can't and he then wants a loan (to which the inevitable refusal is oft greeted with rudeness)

 

[gregers]

used to have the pi55 taken out of me when i 1st went on site and pulled out my b/d workmate.
oh the abuse.
until they needed to borrow it or use it as a hop up.or just to sit on it for a cup of tea

 

[Dave54]

People asking to borrow tools. Now this is really getting worrying!
I won't lend anything with an edge, or anything that's easily damaged like a straight edge.
Easy to say when you spend most of your time alone in a workshop of course. Less easy on site.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

People asking to borrow tools. Now this is really getting worrying!

There seem to be a lot more cadging barstewards around these days who depend on their ability to borrow rather than bring their tools onto the job, or even to buy them. A pox on them all, I say!

 

[Dave54]

Yes they can go away in no uncertain terms! A tradesman without at least the basic proper tools to do a job ain't much of a tradesman IMO. I haven't done any site work for years now but my attitude, certainly with people I didn't know would be "I had to buy mine. Suggest you do the same."

Funny though. I've literally just been having a look at my old AVO multiminor. I wanted an analogue meter for something the other day. I had that meter sent away for service and calibration many moons ago, and someone asked to borrow it. Don't know what they did to it, but it's never been the same since. Funny when I asked him to get it sent away again he didn't want to know. . .

 

[joe-90]

I bet he set the range either too low or to the wrong range altogether.

 

[Dave54]

I bet he set the range either too low or to the wrong range altogether.

Yes, at a guess he did the one of the favourites, either switching ranges while it was connected, or trying to measure volts on the ohms range. The bloke in question always was a silly twonk.
He bent the needle IIRC. I straightened that and it's been OK-ish since. Never quite the same as it was though. Taught me a good lesson about lending stuff out!

 

[Graeme1983]

Snap on are extreme high quality and also the most expensive tool you will ever buy and only sold from the back of a van.
And guranteed for life.
Because they are so expensive means they tend to only fall into the hands of professional mechanics who want the best.
And also they will be looked after so breakages rarly occur but when they do you just hand them back to the van agent and he will hand you the replacement foc.

Sounds about right

My old man was actually a toolmaker at Ford's. I wonder if he procured it from there, people used to procure many objects including doors and whole gearboxes probably even whole cars like Radar in Mash where he sent a jeep home piece by piece.

 

[Graeme1983]

Discovered a variety of old tools around the hayloft, garages, workshop and cellers when cleaning the place out. The original owners of the house were a family of miners from the 1920's who died out in the 70's. Ive got about 5 old pick axes and a variety of chisels and digging implements and other stuff. I wonder if any of them are genuinely old or belonged to the second owner of the house before me, there is a lot of similar old knick knacks around like a Wehrmacht issue oil lamp, ale bottles from the 30's and farming and fruit growing magazines from the 50's.

Ive been using these old chisels and picks to dig out the ground for water pipes and destroy concrete. The old chisel and lump hammer have once again bested a new German tool, an Einhell pneumatic drill, or boring hammer. I keep resorting to these old heavy tools better then the modern stuff I brought from my previous house, apart from the Fiskars axes, the Finns have cornered the market in the best quality axes.

 

[Dave54]

Discovered a variety of old tools around the hayloft, garages, workshop and cellers when cleaning the place out. The original owners of the house were a family of miners from the 1920's who died out in the 70's. Ive got about 5 old pick axes and a variety of chisels and digging implements and other stuff. I wonder if any of them are genuinely old or belonged to the second owner of the house before me, there is a lot of similar old knick knacks around like a Wehrmacht issue oil lamp, ale bottles from the 30's and farming and fruit growing magazines from the 50's.

Ive been using these old chisels and picks to dig out the ground for water pipes and destroy concrete. The old chisel and lump hammer have once again bested a new German tool, an Einhell pneumatic drill, or boring hammer. I keep resorting to these old heavy tools better then the modern stuff I brought from my previous house, apart from the Fiskars axes, the Finns have cornered the market in the best quality axes.

In my experience tools from before WWII seem to be made of better steel than those made later. I don't know why but the older it is the better edge it seems to hold.