I normally wouldn't post about a current auction on E'bay but while surfing I came accross this listing and the price seemed reasonable and I'd like to see someone,anyone interested in tools have the opportunity to keep this,or any old tool box from being destroyed,thrown out,burned,etc.I have absolutley no financial interest in this and if I lived closer to Schenectady, New York,I 'd be posting a gloat about my latest purchase from E'bay.
I know, I know, your supposed to be able to empirically value them by type of construction (ie;dovetails are better, more tills=more money, size counts, etc.).
But in the end they're just a piece of furniture to most people, a big useless piece of furniture.
Unless there's remarkable design, workmanship, material, or provenance they just don't sell.
Best bet is to fill em up w/nondescript user to junk grade tools (the key being variety) and run-em through an auction, and don't cry about the $ you get.
I haven't looked how they go on EBay, but if it brings the opening bid they did OK, and if it breaks $100 the did good.
>E-bay is a great source of pictures and dimensions. Personally I save pics and dimensions of rare objects like that chest. Someone who built it had some good tools in it along the way. Wonder where they all went.
>Can't agree more and in my experance tool chests like this are very common.Even in the old tool hell I live in I seel probably half dozen a week easly. The other week at my wed. auction there was this BIG one with a bunch of sliding drawers in it that slid two on a level.Bit different in that it also had a painted sheet iron top.Had a good bit of stuff in it but nothing great and i pulled out the best of it and made a small pile to bid on as i sure didn't want that box. When they get to it they couldn't get the $5 opening bid and befor I could do anything they tossed the chest in with my lot and I got everything for $5. This box was heavy and all a friend and me could do was get it over to my truck and loaded. When I got home i dumped it out and drug it up on my patio where it still sets. Sheet metal top seams to protect it pretty well from the rain. Was funny but I thought I went though it pretty good at the auction but after getting home found some stuff i had missed. Makes me wonder how oftern that happens.....Todd
If you really don't want it drag it down to your shop and I'll pick it up on my next trip up, or arrange for shipping. How much does it weigh? What's it's diminsions?
>I have one that looks a lot like that. It was "grandfather's". This is what my grandmother told me, so it probably belonged to my great grandfather. Unfortunately I don't have the tools that must have been in it once.
Right now its stored in my basement with 33rpm albums in it. (Antiques in an antique).
I need to go look and see how it is constructed. I know it has sheet metal corners and was painted green, but most of the paint is worn off.
I don't remember it being very remarkable. If it wasn't grandfather's I probably wouldn't have kept it.
>Not to be taking the contrary constantly, but in responce to the subject line;
"..... not neccesarily."
At least if "good" means any sort of dollar value (maybe I'm projecting my warped capitalistic value system onto your post).
When I'm digging hard, I see alot of tool boxes, and I know I'm the 1st to see them in decades, other than family.
Alot of times the family hasn't even been in them before I look.
Most of the time they've got pretty mundane tools in them.
Best you can do is pull out half a dozen OK items ($10-$50) and the rest is box-lot flotsam.
If it weren't that way (filled w/mundane tools) the world would be awash in center wheels and Davis levels.
Rare= High Value, Common=Low Value, Rare=Not Common, sounds simplistic because it is.
Think what the average early 1900's (the era when tool chest use was dieing) carpenter would have had; #4?, #5?, #6?, block plane, screwdrivers, some chisels, couple of squares, couple of saws, brace, eggbeater, hammer or two, plumb bob or level, steel/cloth tape, folding rule, draw knife, etc.
It'd be easy, even @ current retail prices to have way less than $100 worth of tools in a completely intact period box. (unless they picked-up a Winchester, a funky patent, a Bedrock, an older hand me down, etc.)
That's w/out accounting for use and wear, bad condition, or bad storage.
Remember, the industrial revolution got going in the 1840's in the US, and by the 1870's was going full bore. There's plenty of 19th century tools that are common as dirt, and worth as much too.
The classic and unavoidable mistake of new tool hounds (I made it) is to way overpay for the 1st semi-complete tool chest they stumble on. You figure since it's old and intact its gotta be valuable.
>I don't think they were user made I think them boxed were mass produced I see to many that look just like that for them to be user made. I usualy try and clean them up real well and leave them setting in the back of the van when there is an art opening at one of the local galleries. people with excess $ will buy them for a coffee table storage type of thing but other than that they are useless in todays market. if they are the short ones onlt 12" deep or so put some cheap 8" legs on it and then it will bring a couple bucks more. at $50 I think they did good. I wouldn't haull one to the basement shop and would think twice befor taking it to the back of the garage.
>Actually, I think I might be able to put it to decent use. Between hand planes and chisels and screwdrivers everywhere, sockets and wrenches and whatnot, most of my tools are currently in a scattered collection of old plastic crappy toolboxes. I've been needing a decent place to put things.
It's entirely possible that I'll get this thing here, and decide it's crap, and say so. It's also possible that it'll at least be better than the mass chaos system that's currently at work in my basement. And like I said, for $50? I don't think it's too horrible.
Maybe it's just me. Folks in here seem pretty down on this thing already. Then again, some of them seem to think it'll be worthless if it's not filled with a buried treasure assortment of antique tools, and in any event, they don't want to put out the effort to lug the thing around.
>"At least if "good" means any sort of dollar value (maybe I'm projecting my warped capitalistic value system onto your post)."
I guess my view would be not everyone who could afford such a tool chest would be a top notch craftsman. For every top notch guy how many regular Joe's were out there making furniture or cabinets for the masses. These guys would also need a place to put their tools. And by todays standards money wise maybe what we find today isnt worht a lot. But I bet that in the day a good assortment of tools was worth quite a bit.
I think if you can put that to good use go for it. I dont have the space for something like that but I can also see applications for it. And for 50.00 why not recycle it instead of make firewood out of it. Jay
Similarities in boxes I'd attribute to convergent evolution (similar use, similar space and portability constraints, etc.), plagarism of design, common design sources (books, magazines, schools) and maybe even apprenticeship requirement.
We still have all the apprentices make tool totes and stools from a common drawing. Usefull items, but really just basic print reading, mensuration, and joinery exercises in disguise.
By the way, historically chests weren't intended to be regularly transported. In old contracts, the contractor was required to pick-up and deliver the tradesmans chest from his home to the shop, and then be responsible for transporting it to any long term jobs. The tradesman was required to transport his tote or day box w/tools as neccesary.
Doubt you could buy the material and hardware for the $50, let alone the time to make it. More cubic volume than any of the modern alternatives in the same price range. Fits a practical need, and is historically and asthetically satifying to boot, where else you gonna get that kind of value for that kind of money. You or yours might even realise a profit off it in years to come, unlikely w/a $50 Harbor Fright tool chest.
My posts were meant as kinda tangental thoughts, not focused commentary on this specific chest and it's purchaser. Opinions on a larger market topic.
>I didn't think about the aprentiship angle? you may very well be right but so many are almost identical it had just made me wonder. I bet that I know of three that I could take the slide trays out of and inter change them and they would look like they belng. and so many are covered with metal. but then you get the ones like pictured with the raised panel. Could be same book same plans same union as all of mine have came from this area?
>I do realize that there are multiple purposes for which people buy tools and tool chests and other assorted craft-oriented things.
Some folks buy for use. Once in a while, there are still some old tools that really retain their shine, and I'm not speaking in terms of aesthetics. I've got a first generation bedrock number 8 that's simply amazing. 2 old sweetheart #3s, one corrugated, one not. The corrugated has a small stamp on the side, "imperfect." I can say with all honesty that if that old number 3 is 'imperfect,' then stanley's standards have come WAY down. And an old sweetheart number 4, whose blade has been replaced with a lie-nielsen. The fit and finish, and the way these old tools just naturally feel in the hand is remarkable. I have a lie-nielsen number 4. Given identical blades, I'm hard-pressed to say which one works better. I have a friend who just left north bennet who'd gotten rid of all his new, L-N and Veritas tools for old stanleys. A pair of 4 1/2s and an old 5 1/2 round out my current stable. I re-habbed an old transitional plane (still need to write that article on doing that) that works reasonably well, but I still need to flatten the bed some more to make the lateral adjustment more stable. The point is that some of the old tools were really, really nice.
Some of the old tools are truly treasures. Some aren't... I've also seen a lot of broken frogs, brazed mouths, chipped and pitted chisels... I've even got an old stanley 750 chisel that's had a perfect canvas pattern pitted into it, most likely from an old wet tool roll. You win some, you lose some.
Some folks buy for nostalgia. There seem to be a lot of old tools that surface that might make a handy decoration for someone's mantelpiece in that regard, but only a mantelpiece owned by someone who knows very little or nothign about tools, or craftsmanship, except that it's "gone." An old wooden plane that's cracked, chipped, dry-rotted, with a rusty blade will most likely find its way to someone's mantelpiece who doesn't know any better, and oft laments that "they don't make things the way they used to." All it takes is a little bit of wax around the edges to make it "look" like a plane that was valued to these folks. And I wouldn't be surprised at all to see some of the new-fangled bohemian crowd making something like this chest into a coffee table in a similar light.
Lastly, I do realize that there's a collector's market out there. There are people who will pay, and pay huge, for old tools. I don't confess to understand this market, but I used to collect comic books as a kid, and other things as I got older, and I do understand the potential offered by old tool chests. It's like getting that side job cleaning out some old grandmother's attic in the hopes of finding an original, near mint, whatever it is, that was left by her son in a dresser drawer, safe from ultraviolet rays and too much air circulation. I saw a patternmaker's tool cabinet somewhere online that someone had discovered, and managed to purchase from someone who'd been keeping it, with all of its contents, in a garage somewhere... Not quite studley caliber, but there was a clear system at work, and clearly the thing had been "adjusted," until the system was working smoothy. But I'm sure for every diamond in the rough, there's a lot of digging, and a lot of useless coal. So, I do understand a level of frustration with the potential that probably wouldn't be found in this old chest. No offense taken.
That said, I think it'll make some nice storage in my basement, once it's up on blocks. To keep from rotting.
Re: one of the other replies in here, I don't think the old tool chests were meant to be easily transportable at all. Given the combined amount of both money, and time spent buying, or building, and tuning up all those tools, an old tool chest owned by even a reasonable craftsman was surely a treasure chest waiting to be taken by any able thief. So, no wonder they were made so big and heavy. I even read somewhere that some carpenters left the hinges un-oiled, so that they'd be a sort-of burglar alarm, in case the chest was being pilfered. (Also heard stories of bells being hung, etc.) Better to have a huge, heavy chest that would be very hard to move, to help guarantee that it would stay put.
>I didn't want to make you feal down any tool you can use is worth it's weight in gold. But from the point of some one who sells tools some people think thaey are worth 100's of dollars when you go to look at what they have for sale and will only sell all the tools in the box. in that case they make the whole deal a bust usualy. I can get about a $100 for a good clean one from the right person but it has to be displayed right to get it.
>In this case, where someone got a decent deal on a chest that looks like it will work pretty good, I think there is nothing wrong with posting and in fact Andy wsa trying to help someone out. I think a few times a week of ebay funnies posting is also okay, but I think a lot of people get tired pretty quick of regular bay postings. Plus, I never bid on something until the last few hours, even if I'm watching it. So in general I am emphatically against posting in progress auctions on the hand tool forum. A good example was a few months ago when someone decided it would be a neat trick to post their own items to bring attention to them, pretending like he had no idea they were his.
>This is a great tool box, make no mistake about it. Some of the tool dealers were just remarking on why it was priced so low. For a craftsman to keep hand tools in, this is the perfect box. I'm a bit envious. I think some day I'll be building a traditional box like this, but if I could've gotten this one at that price I would have.
>An ultra rare,barn fresh,and obviously minty cross between a tool tote and tool box.You just don`t see many of these anymore(thank you know who).
If you actually buy this your family has a legitimate reason to sign you into de-tox and dispose of your rust collection thru intervention.Bid at your own risk!
