About a month ago I was helping my dad rearrange the chaos in his garage that we had just placed, shoved, and stacked his entire shop into after moving it from KS to Des Moines and rediscovered a heavy wooden box with hand cut dovetail joinery. I remembered it from loading the Uhaul back in KS too. I played strong man and lifted my grandfather's carpentry tool box by myself into the moving van. It was heavy, stout and showed signs of once being beautiful. I commented to my dad that it should be refinished and used as a show piece in his new shop. He was to tired and sore to hear me I think.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I'm helping my dad put up a wall in his new shop and we need to move the tool box. My dad says, "If you are interested, KP's toolbox is yours." Instead of my dad restoring it, I get the pleasure to do so. My dad told me that my grandpa worked on a crew of 5-7 carpenters that went to work each day on the back of a flat bed pickup. They'd work all day and then had to spend most of the night sharpening their tools. If they weren't sharp in the morning, they got fired on the spot. Below are some pictures of how it looks now. The top half is spilt and folds down to reveal three small drawers and a storage space to the right. The box that folds down contains the 5 hand saws. The lower half is made up of 2 deep drawers that house the plans and brace bits among other things.
Possibly the best part of recieving the tool box are it's contents. Swedish chisels given to grandpa by his mentor, who name escapes me now, a Stanley No 7, another Stanley for inside curves, Miller Falls No. 9, 2 braces, bits, scoring knives, awls, 5 Disstons saws, saw tooth set, 2 more manual drills and 2 wooden planes, plus much more. I have the tool box on a shelf in my shop now. Eventually I will do a little refinish on the box, but I also hope to learn how to use and maintain the tools as well. I'll post some more picks of the contents soon...I will be making some new chisel handles for sure!
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