In the bottom of my tool box I have a screwdriver formed from around 18 inches of (perhaps 3/8th inch) steel bar. If you can imagine it looped on itself to form the handle.
There is a sort of, patina on it that tells you it`s been hanging around in toolboxes for over 50 years, just jostling gently about.
One of the few solid material links from 50 years ago. It`s either from one of my Father`s 1950`s Bedford vans or a Morris Minor.. I can remember deciding to keep it when aged around 16yrs.
As an aside,
I can remember peering into the oil filler aged 14yrs on one of those vans and seeing a bed of coal shale like substance with the rockers just visible. Yet it ran for years in that condition, perhaps aided by a bypass oil filter ( never changed) and a weekly pint or so of new oil flooding the rocker box.
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I have a selection of my great uncle's old tools, he was a true engineer, I will have to dig them out, I use a few including a couple of imperial micrometers circa 1950s that togther with a 2000s calculator do the metric job too.
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Wooden adjustable square about 15" long, moving part nests inside the fixed part when folded with almost invisible joins. Almost black where it is exposed to atmosphere - some form of hardwood. Never used it on a car though!
Given to me by my father when we built a "cut roof" in 1994, was my great grandfathers ( a shipwright) and he retired in the late forties and died in 1958.
Probably made when he was an apprentice pre first world war and pre-dates most cars!
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tinyurl.com/42hzsc
Sorry to lower the tone - just could not resist the temptation!
I lost my older tools (started collecting at 17) in 1999 when I had one of three of my tool boxes 'lifted' from my shed in London.
In the last two years I have just got back in to home mechanics (hence so many questions from me!) but I still have 'tool fine adjustment for the use of' with me.
I found 'this' as a part, rusting away in a farmers field so I do not know how old it actually is.
It is a 4lb lump hammer head. I took it home, cleaned it up, had it re shafted (professionally) and that was in 1979. It does have the old WD and crowfoot stamped on it so I guess it is oldish?
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Estwing 18oz Geologists' Rock Pick - bought for A level Geology field trips a long, long time ago, but still in my possession and still used for separating the more delicate components ;-)
Williams Superslim Torque wrench - essential for working on the aluminium engine of the Singer Chamois, my first car, also a long long time ago
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I have a couple of old hammers I found in my Grandads tool box in his shed after my Grandma passed away. The longer one has a simple 1.5 pound head on about a 14" shaft. Dont know how old it is but it looks old, possibly first half of 20th century. Looking on one t'internet site, it resembles a coopers hammer.
Not an automotive tool, but then it may have been used to hit stubborn things during his very regular car repair sessions!
The tool box itself is a sturdy wooden box, stencil painted inside with a crown and "A.M. 1940", obviously Air Ministry. There are a few old things in it: brace and bit, tenon saw, the hammers, etc., among some more modern stuff.
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I have a wind up jack made of cast iron with a rectangular solid iron winding handle.. which was part of the tools I acquired when I bought my first car - a 1929 Riley 9 - in 1964.
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MOD Police will be round shortly to ask for their lump hammer back. Regards Peter
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I have a set of feeler gauges from the 60's that I acquired off my Grandad when trying to set the points on my first car - a 1989 Nissan Micra! It was mostly rotton and dead when I got it but at least it ran ok. They are in my tool box but I doubt they will see much use now.
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A screwdriver with a red bakerlite handle that ran the full length of the shaft. Came from the engineer's tool kit on a Lancaster - still does sterling service.
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Simple flat screwdriver from the toolkit of a mid-1960s Jaguar.
The toolbox - long gone - was lined with green baize and used to sit in the recess of the spare wheel.
I think there was about dozen hand tools all in their own shaped compartments.
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I have some tools which may be 100 years old. They certainly belonged to my paternal Grandfather who was born around 1885. A keen motorist and motorcyclist he maintained his own vehicles. Nothing fancy but various spanners and screwdrivers which later became my Father's and then subsequently mine. Still in regular use.
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>tool kit on a Lancaster - still does sterling service.
PU
Perhaps it should read Stirling service?
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I thought that someone might pick up on that !
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So nobodys made their own tools then?
I still have a steel tool box, axle stands, external and internal calipers, garden trowel and fork, as well as sundry bits and pieces all handcrafted by myself when I was an engineering apprentice.
Some were made under the auspices of the instructors, others (such as the axle stands & toolbox) were made unofficially when I should have been doing something else.
As this period co-incided with the purchase of my first car, I guess they must count as my oldest tools. I'm not saying how old, but do you remember when firms used to take on apprentices and send them to college rather than colleges foisting students on firms & calling it work experience?
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>>do you remember when firms used to take on apprentices and send them to college rather than colleges foisting students on firms & calling it work experience?
Been there.
Done that.
Got the C & Gs.
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So nobodys made their own tools then?
Yep. Still got the little F-type adjustable spanner I made when I was a R.E.M.E. Apprentice Tradesman. And it still works.
Oldest tool in the box (excluding its owner!) is the Drift, Brass, Large, Bearings for the Bashing out with, the last remnant of my Army toolbox. Date-stamped 1942.
Also loads of my Dad's old Whitworth stuff, he was a quarry fitter by trade so a lot of it's far too big for general use. I'm loath to sling them though, know what I mean?
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ive got a 13mm spanner that an old guy lent to me in Australia in 1969, he was German and had it from living in Germany, as happens it never got returned and it ended up in a T chest of stuff that i had sent back to the UK on my return , i now live in France and used it the other day to remove the ladder of my swimming pool, i wish it could speak i imagine it would be an interesting story.
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