When I first became involved in tool collecting, one of the guys I regularly got interesting items from invited me to his storage unit to have a look round. When I arrived and he opened up the unit I could hardly believe my eyes. There in the centre of  room was a 1 1/2 ton Mathieson mortising machine from the Saracen Head Tool Works in nearby Glasgow. He smiled when he saw the expression on my face and said “I think you’ll need a bigger car.” We had a laugh and then I had a look round the rest of the unit. When I was about to leave I noticed a box of tooling sitting beside the machine, I asked what would happen to the machine and he said it would got for scrap. I asked if he would sell me the tooling and he agreed. Although I was unable to save the machine I did manage to save the tooling.

As Mick Dundee would say “That’s not a screwdriver” , “THAT’S A SCREWDRIVER”.

2 London Pattern screw drivers, 4 1/2″ and 23″ in length. The smaller is unnamed the larger by Mathieson of Glasgow.

14 of brace bits by Alex Marshall of Glasgow. Ranging from 1 3/4″ to 3/16″. They are in top condition still showing the yellowing of the hardening process.

Very rare to find one of these in good condition due to pitting caused by the trowel digging in soil and the related dampness. Manufactured by leading makers Brades Co. This is a nice example of a tool used in the Victorian passion of keeping ferns.

The Victorians were mad for ferns, growing them in Wardian cases in their drawing rooms, conservatories and ravine gardens, and hunting many of the UK’s native ferns to the verge of extinction. Then they fell from favour.

2 of pad saws. 1 made from rosewood the other from beech. Elegant little items at a small cost.

 

Lufkin 50′ tape in original box. Of little value but a nice display

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This is a Mathieson 2 1/8″ machinist level that I carry with me as a lucky charm. It is small enough to fit snuggly into my pocket. In all the time I have been collecting old tools, I have never seen another of its like.

I called into Bills Tool Store as usual, at the weekend. The previous week I had seen a new old stock Record spokeshave on display and thought about making a purchase as it was only £7.50p. In the end, I had decided against it. In the meantime, I had a change of mind and decided I would buy it if it was still there. When I arrived at Bills I checked the windows and it had gone. In its place, there was a Stanley USA 271. I decided not to make the same mistake as the previous week and bought it right away.

There can’t be many tools stores where you can still purchase this type of vintage tool.

Thank goodness for places like BTS.

On a recent trip to my brothers’ workshop, I happened to mention that I was considering buying an Ultimatum brace, as an addition to my tool collection. We had a look at a few back additions of our  David Stanley catalogues and then carried on working on our latest projects. Over the past few weeks, we carried on refurbishing a number of planes with no more mention of the brace, until last night when he presented me with this fully functional miniature brace that he had made in the workshop. Dims 6 3/4″ X 2 1/4

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