Garrett Wade brings back the... *LINK*

Yet more items from Garrett Wade...

Christopher Fitch @ Memphis

>A new honing guide...

Universal Ruler Stop

hmmm...

Re: Yet more items from Garrett Wade...

Tony Z.

>Any idea where the items are made?

Re: Garrett Wade brings back the...

kees

>metric?

kees

Re: Yet more items from Garrett Wade...

Todd Stock

>The Simpson machine Tool Company was making a repro #1 for several years; however, their link is down, and I see no evidence of current activity.

Re: Yet more items from Garrett Wade...

Tony Z.

>I tried reaching Simpson last year (being a Civil War buff, I'm in the Gettysburg area quite frequently). Anyhow, I did speak to the owner, and he told me that it was his son that was doing the Odd Jobs, more as a "labor of love", but it was nowhere near economically feasible. I asked if he had any product left, and he said no and good-bye!

Can you say trammel?

Jim Reed @Tallahassee

>The *Universal Ruler Stop* looks exactly like my set of trammels. Ruled measurements are not needed. This is a nice product, but it looks like something produced by someone who is ignorant of traditional woodworking practices.

Re: Garrett Wade brings back the...

Greg Phillips, Berrien Springs, MI

>I think Garrett Wade has been selling the Odd Jobs for several years now. I remember seeing it in one of the first catalogs I got from them. Is this one different in some way?

Happy Holidays!

Greg

Could be made by...

Scott Burr Ben Lomond,CA

>AMT. They made some planes and a knock-off odd jobs.

Re: Yet more items from Garrett Wade...

Joe Rogers, Northern Virginia

>I was just in Woodcraft and found a "spoon" type hollowing tool and the package was unbranded. This is the first tool that I found from Simpson. The "Odd Jobs" was on their product list there at the same time. I wonder if another mfg. has purchased the business and is just producing tools for other stores?JR

Made by...

Dar

>Hello Tony,

The honing guide that Christopher has mentioned is made by Richard Kell of Northumberland, England. Richard is a highly talented toolmaker and this large guide that can be used for skew blades is his latest project. We are always proud to give Richard credit for his work. Richard designs, manufactures and even packages his products himself! We have been importing this guide into Canada for about 6 months now.

In the current issue of Canadian Woodworking Magazine (Dec/Jan 2005)you will find an excellent review of Richard's honing guides.

I hope this helps!

Kind regards,

Dar

European Hand Tools

Re: Made by...

Simon in Vancouver

>I saw the honing guide you guys donated to the guitar stand contest. I bought one from you - sure am glad I did! Thanks for the excellent service, too.

Re: Garrett Wade brings back the...

Nicholas Carey

>Stanley stopped making the #1 Odd Job around 1930. And for the record, it's not a trammel, it's a rather elegant little layout tool that does, well, "odd jobs".

For a while it was being manufactured by the Simpson Tool Company, a rather small concern in Pennsylvania (I suspect someone's garage), along with a couple of other very useful tools. All of Simpson's tools were top-drawer reproductions of great old tools, including a large spoon plane that absolutely *rocked* for carving.

Simpson Tool just suddenly vanished one day, website gone and telephone disconnected. Even snail mail was returned as "addressee unknown".

The spoon plane came back in a greatly diminished form (e.g., Chinese-made and nowhere near the quality).

It's nice to see the #1 Odd Job back. I hope Garrett Wade is having it made to high quality standards.

Re: Yet more items from Garrett Wade...

Alan Hamilton

>Christopher,

I wasn't aware the old #1 Odd Jobs had gone away--during the past decade or so anyway. I got mine as a birthday present almost a decade ago, in '95 or '6 or '7. Way back then Garrett-Wade used the same advertising theme: "Back after all these years..."

It is a really neat little tool. It's amazing they can cram all those functions into one little tool. (Here it comes!) But I don't find mine all that useful. I use mine once in awhile, but it certainly isn't what I reach for first.

Mine has some bad habits that make it less than precise for some things: e.g., when I lock down the extension of either rule, it cocks in its channel a little--just a little, to be sure--but that makes it less than precise for a try square. And for nit picking, in the dark of night, in the seclusion of my tool chest, when they are unobserved by inquisitive eyes, the various screws and such that are supposed to hold things, like the rules, unscrew themselves and fall out; then the rule or the scribe/screwdriver/trammel point thingy falls out when I pick up the Odd Jobs. That's just a little annoying--for now--I will think otherwise when one of the screws unscrews itself and runs away from home, never to be found.

Alan