This may be old news to some, but I think it bears repeating, and there's some new stuff, so bear with me.
Anyone with even a passing interest in old tools can benefit from looking at old tool catalogues. They are full of useful information to help identify them, point out special features and to show the range of designs and prices that were available. A good catalogue can illustrate the range of work undertaken in a forgotten trade. The trouble is, they are often rare, especially the older ones. Too many shops would have chucked out last year's issue when a new one arrived. Surviving catalogues in good condition can get really hard to find and expensive.
But now we have the web!
Wouldn't it be great if all the old catalogues were available online? Then we could download them and read them on our flashy modern i-pads, kindles, tablets, phones etc. And indeed, over the last decade or so, lots of people have scanned what they could and shared the results on various websites. Some of them are still there, but others have disappeared. However, a remarkable tool collector, Mark Stansbury is working hard on putting things right and making not just a handful, but thousands of catalogues available. He started with his own trowel catalogues but many many others have been added since. He has tracked down catalogues from societies and individuals who want their information to be widely available. He has even searched in old periodicals for interesting tool adverts. The collection, known as the International Tool Catalogue Library is held at the Internet Archive, here:
https://archive.org/details/internation ... -addeddate
If you follow that link today, you'll see 6,608 items.
Some recent highlights of special interest to us in the UK include:
Spear and Jackson 1939 catalogue - 156 pages of pre-war plenty, including scary great circular saws and a rather smart cover. (I do recommend a look at page 92 to see the chap testing (not ruining!) the butchers' cleavers and also at page 109 where a tweedy gent spends his days stepping on captive forks
)
Record Tools 1960 - a pocket guide to your favourite vices and more
William Hunt, Brades catalogue from 1906 - one of the Black Country's best, at its peak of variety. Hoes hoes and more hoes, plus spades in all sizes.
And Lock Tools of Oldbury - a Brades subsidiary I had never heard of, making lovely hammers, displayed like pieces of sculpture
That's only the fresh tip of a very large iceberg. Have a look, have a read, reflect on all the tools you could have had a century ago.
If you've been good, and you're an optimist, you could even get some ideas for this year's letter to Santa!
:text-merryxmas:
Anyone with even a passing interest in old tools can benefit from looking at old tool catalogues. They are full of useful information to help identify them, point out special features and to show the range of designs and prices that were available. A good catalogue can illustrate the range of work undertaken in a forgotten trade. The trouble is, they are often rare, especially the older ones. Too many shops would have chucked out last year's issue when a new one arrived. Surviving catalogues in good condition can get really hard to find and expensive.
But now we have the web!
Wouldn't it be great if all the old catalogues were available online? Then we could download them and read them on our flashy modern i-pads, kindles, tablets, phones etc. And indeed, over the last decade or so, lots of people have scanned what they could and shared the results on various websites. Some of them are still there, but others have disappeared. However, a remarkable tool collector, Mark Stansbury is working hard on putting things right and making not just a handful, but thousands of catalogues available. He started with his own trowel catalogues but many many others have been added since. He has tracked down catalogues from societies and individuals who want their information to be widely available. He has even searched in old periodicals for interesting tool adverts. The collection, known as the International Tool Catalogue Library is held at the Internet Archive, here:
https://archive.org/details/internation ... -addeddate
If you follow that link today, you'll see 6,608 items.
Some recent highlights of special interest to us in the UK include:
Spear and Jackson 1939 catalogue - 156 pages of pre-war plenty, including scary great circular saws and a rather smart cover. (I do recommend a look at page 92 to see the chap testing (not ruining!) the butchers' cleavers and also at page 109 where a tweedy gent spends his days stepping on captive forks
)Record Tools 1960 - a pocket guide to your favourite vices and more
William Hunt, Brades catalogue from 1906 - one of the Black Country's best, at its peak of variety. Hoes hoes and more hoes, plus spades in all sizes.
And Lock Tools of Oldbury - a Brades subsidiary I had never heard of, making lovely hammers, displayed like pieces of sculpture
That's only the fresh tip of a very large iceberg. Have a look, have a read, reflect on all the tools you could have had a century ago.
If you've been good, and you're an optimist, you could even get some ideas for this year's letter to Santa!
:text-merryxmas:
