Old family tools

When my dad was 18 he rode in the caboose of a Santa Fe freight train from near Amarillo, TX to Kansas City to sell a carload of cattle. While he was there he traded a saddle for a set of Owatona wrenches he used for the next 60 years while he was farming.

Many times I cleaned and rearranged those wrenches in his pickup toolbox while I was growing up.

Today I dug one out of my toolbox to change the oil filter on my son's car.

Some things are priceless.

 

yeah i have some old cornwall tools from grandpa, i like using those also

 

I still have a few of my grandfather's old MAC tools. Most have grown legs and are missing, but I have a few.

 

Neat story Turkey. I have a few of my Grandpa's old tools, each gets its own special spot scooched off to the side of the drawer a bit...

 

I have several old Snap On & Mac tools (and a few names i have never heard of) from my grandfather that I keep and use in my personal tool box at my shop

 

Yep i got a bunch, but it seems people want to use them as hammers and pry bars.

 

My Snap-On bottom and OTC top box are Grandpa's, as are most of the contents. I think of him every time I use 'em, and I use 'em all the time. I miss the hell out of him.

 

My great great grandfather was a carpenter and built many homes in Excelsior Springs, Mo. I have his original toolbox and about a dozen of his planes, calipers, hand drills, saws and a few wrenches. The box is pretty big, about 2' X 2' X 3' and had a couple of sliding trays in the top, the lid has knobs that turned sideways and held handsaws. It's cool to think of him using these tools to build the box, then loading all the tools in it and taking it to the jobsites. I'm in the process of rebuilding the box now and I'll get everything back in it and pass it along to my son or grandsons in a few years.

I'll be passing my Snap-On box and tools to my son and grandsons too, but not for a while yet - I'm still using them!

 

My Father did nearly everything required around house and car for many years with:
The OEM toolkit from the '48 Ford (now mine, car and tools), a hammer, one good screwdriver and one battered wreck of a screwdriver for prying, chiseling, and opening paint cans, a pair of lineman's pliers, a crosscut saw, and... nothing else. The hammer, an American Stanley, has a back-story, too: It has "Jap" cut into the handle by whatever other member of the 2nd Marine Division gave it to my Father. The hammer had reentered American ownership on Guadalcanal...who knows how it entered Japanese service temporarily, perhaps in the Philippines in 1942.
Someday they will be mine, but I hope they stay my Father's for a long time yet!

 

my tool box today with most of tools in it was purchased by my step dad many years ago from matco tool truck some one traded in on new tools.if i can keep my son from losing them they will be his someday

 

I recently found one of my grandpa's ancient rawhide hammers in the back of my dad's Buick. I bought the car from my mom after he died last year. My kids keep trying to get it and play with it. This hammer is at least 60 years old. Still in good shape.

 

I have a set of HAZET wrenches that were given to me by the late Fran Bannister.

 

Grandpa's tools are cool. Here's a neat story for you.
When my grandpa passed away my dad didn't want his tools so I got them. They were all disorganized and in a ratty used up rolling box so I put them in the corner of the shop with no real intentions of using them but just kinda there in honor of my grandpa.
So as time goes by I'm rebuilding my front suspension on a 66 Chevy II and I need a real big tool to get the pitman arm off the steering box. I didn't have anything so I figured I'd check his box. Right on top of the 3rd drawer I look in is a set of large wrenches and the 1-5/16 (as I recall) fit perfect! As time goes by everytime I need some weird or special tool that I didn't have I could go to his box and find it.
One day my brother calls me he lives in MS. and we get to talking about Pep's tools. He makes a comment he would have liked to get them so I tell him the story of how I got them and how they have been handy. I had plans on going to visit him so I went through the box and took the duplicates and some of the other tools I knew I'd have a use for and brought the whole box and the rest up to him. I still have and use alot of my grandpa's tools and the coolest part is my brother sat down with his two sons and organized and cleaned up all of Pep's tools up there and they use them on the restoration of his 66 Chevelle.
Kinda neat to think those tools are keeping the hot rodding alive in two different states and numerous projects and giving a father and his sons something they will remember.

Thanks Pep!