Using Vintage Kitchen Tools

[Nyboy]

My grandfathers prized procession was a old drill he bought new. Once a year he would take apart the motor and clean it. He always talked about writing to the company to see if they knew, who had their oldest working drill. After he had a stroke and couldn't tinker with things any more, he gave me the drill. Both his son and my older brother where mechanics who worked with tools everyday, yet he wanted me it have it.

 

[Smart Red]

How special! Having a motor, it must have been electric. But being treasured by Grandpa makes it very special.

DH has a set of hand drills (brace and bits) that have been well used by the family over many, many years.

.......................(examples found on line)
[Before drills and braces, T-shaped augers were used to poke holes into wood, while smaller gimlets were used to start them. Auger handles were usually made of a piece of hardwood that was sanded, rounded, or even contoured to give the user a firm grip. Bits on spoon augers essentially carved a hole in the piece of wood, and had to be periodically removed to clear the chips. Spiral-bit augers were precursors to modern drills, whose bits cleared the hole of chips as the user drilled.

A significant advance on the auger was the brace, which was originally designed with a single, permanently fixed bit at its end. Eventually, though, braces were designed with sophisticated chucks to accommodate replacement bits, as well as bits of different sizes and for various purposes. Chucks were patented as vigorously as the braces themselves; the Barber chuck, for example, was widely used on Millers Falls braces of the late 19th century. The braces themselves also evolved for particular trades, from furniture makers to surgeons.]

There was a story in a woodworking magazine about a DeWalt radial arm drill that dated from the early 60s. DH's was purchased by his father earlier than that and is still in use just about every day in the work shop. It was almost the only saw we needed/used to build both houses.

.............................(photo found on line -- not our saw, but looks the same)
Other new radial arm saws (Craftsman, Delta, etc.) have come and gone, but this little guy remains a prize workhorse in the shop.

 

[Nyboy]

My friend deals in very high end 18 century furniture. I am always amazed at some of the detailed inlays, all that where done with hand tools.