Chicago Maxwell Street Market
David Miller from Iowa
>Not that I want the competition from you Chicago readers, but the today�s outdoor market was reasonably productive (it is actually on Canal Street at Roosevelt, not Market Street). It was a bit nippy with a stiff breeze, but that kept the crowd down and made the sellers a little more motivated.
Picked up:
A nice 6� carver�s drawknife (Swan mark)
Dead mint Klein 10� bit brace (I really need another brace � I gave 12 to the benefit auction a while back just to get rid of them)
Couple handsaws (Disston and Simonds)- a bit rusty but both had excellent formed and carved fruitwood handles which I�ll keep
30� Disston saw for a miter box (like I need another one of these as well)
Mint Yankee (Stanley era) #130 spiral screwdriver
A decent Stanley #102 block plane ($2)
3 � near mint Stanley bench plane kidney lever caps � 1-#3 and 2-#4/5
Stanley #45/46 patent date slitter I found in the bottom of a tub full of drill bits. Had to pay the $1 minimum transaction fee that is an unwritten rule at this market. Spent way too long looking for the other cutters with no success.
There were about 20 bench planes, but only 2 broke my stride � a pre-war Stanley #6, decent but broken tote � he wanted $25 but I just couldn�t pull the trigger seeing how I have 3 or 4 of these in a box waiting to be tuned. The other was a Sargent/Craftsman #78 equivalent (can�t remember the Sargent #). Good shape with the 1920�s script Craftsman logo - $10, but it was missing the depth stop and I promised myself I wouldn�t buy incomplete planes anymore. A couple deep breaths and an authentic chorizo/egg burrito and I was able to walk away.
Spent $55 (including breakfast) but that also included a fence to a vintage Delta unisaw. I don�t have one, but I figured I can get most of my expenditure back by turning the fence on eBay. I was, however, having second thoughts as I lugged all this 5 blocks to my car. An hour in the wind was about all I could take even though I was dressed appropriately.
Hope to see you Chicago lurkers there next time � I�ll be the big bald guy with glasses, shabby green coat, and a paperboy bag full of heavy metal items that is rooting through the junk bins trying to find a square-tanged countersink bit trying to ignore the vendor that is going on about how rare rusty brace bits are.
PS - I was privately boasting to some of you about my appointment yesterday with a guy to buy a truckload of patternmarkers tools along with several treadle powered wookworking tools. A complete bust except I gave the guy $10 for an aluminum Workmate and a couple Jorgenson clamps. The fellow seemed to think that a trunk full of well used C clamps and plumbing coppers were valuable woodworking tools. He actually did have a couple BIG industrial mortising machines - electric with a foot actuator. He also had a monstrous metal cutting lathe from the dawn of the industrial revolution (belt powered from the ceiling with a 12' bed). Literally thousands of pounds. Told him he should call the Museum of Science and Industry and he said he would.