My father was a carpenter. As early as I can remember he worked away from home during the week and traveled home for the weekends to spend it with mom and I. I anxiously anticipated his arrival home on Fridays when I would quiz him on what interesting things happen that past week. Even on the weekends he worked home remodeling projects. My father was not an educated man, he was very black and white, but he knew how to build things out of wood and metal. His tools were the necessity of his sustenance. I inherited many of my fathers tools and I think of him every time I use them. I can sometimes hear him telling me a better way to use a tool!
Like most carpenters, my dad had a specific hammer for each specific application. This is his Estwing 16 oz. curved claw finish hammer. Unique to Estwing in the day was a one-piece solid steel forging (no head to handle connection) and a laminated leather grip. Estwing produced this style of hammer from 1923 to the late 1950’s. I believe the date of manufacture of this hammer to be between the late 1940’s to early 1950’s.
A majority of my dad’s work was remodeling which began with demolition. This is his Bridgeport Hardware Manufacturing Corp. No. 20 nail puller. The handle slides back and forth and acts like a hammer to drive the pinchers tight to the nail. The lever (or foot) by the pinchers is used as leverage when extracting the nail. The date of manufacture is between 1902 and the early 1960’s.
My dad did quite a bit of finish carpentry. This is his 12 inch Lufkin Rule Company dividers. Dividers have a multitude of uses from scribing to measuring to transferring of measurements. The Lufkin Rule Company was founded in 1885 and later acquired in 1967. Lufkin was best known for steel measuring tapes and folding rules. The date of manufacture is unknown, but most likely pre 1950’s.
This is my dad’s Starrett No. 530 50 foot steel tape with hook. With eighth inch graduations this would be used during framing and maybe foundation layout. I even have the original box that it came in. Date of manufacture is between 1942 and the late 1950’s. Starrett currently makes a modern version of the No. 530.
This is my dad’s Stanley No. 13-220 7 inch block plane. Stanley has made many versions of this basic low cost plane over the years, and continues to make it today. Perfect for finish carpentry, but not refined enough for building fine furniture, which I never saw my dad build. Date of manufacture is most likely early 1970’s.
This is the only power tool I inherited from my dad, and it’s his Delta model 37-207 6 inch Jointer. It’s used to make 2 adjacent edges of a board flat and 90 degrees to each other. I have much respect for this tool as it has three 6 inch wide razor sharp blades rotating on a drum at high speed. My dad cut off his little finger with this machine. I remember my mom altering his work gloves pinky-less on one hand. Date of manufacture is mid 1940’s.