Every tool tool tels a story: Here's a few that talk to me each time I reach for them. I have a lot others as I'm quite fond of old tools. Often they are better quality than what I can buy today. And the tools today have no stories yet.....




Clockwise from the top:

a) a spokeshave from my Grandfather. He was a US Treasury agent who probably knew Elliot Ness. He stuck with it for his career, Ness did not. Yes, I know how to sharpen and use a spokeshave.
b) A very nice old SnapOn 1/4" drive found in a house clean out. Now a standing member of my bike tool kit.
c) Utica Tool side cutters from my Father's work bench.
d) German made metric open end wrench. This was also from my Father's bench. The ONLY metric too he had and I've often wondered why he had it and where he got it. He probably never worked on a metric fastener. I'm always reminded of my Dad when I use these two.
e) Nice old Crescent wrench, an actual Crescent vs what we now generically call all of these adjustables. I almost lost this recently. I forgot a valuable lesson from working Nuclear plants and did not tether this to my arm when working on my well. Yup, I dropped it down the well. But it landed on a wee ledge about 5 feet down. I creeped back to the shop to get one of my magnetic grabber tools, and a tether line, and carefully, slowly, creepily snagged this tool and brought it back up. What luck. Another story...