Saturday, March 27, 2010

Dealers' Shows




Who has time for woodworking when there are lumberyards to tour and dealers' shows to attend?

The PATINA and Brown International shows are in close succession, which is tough on the wallet, but easy on the eyes. And even if you're not looking for anything in particular, you can usually find something you "need".

New additions to my collection include: a well-maintained "user" moulding plane; a book entitled Carpentry and Woodworking—A Handbook of Tools, Materials, Methods, and Directions (1945); a jeweler's saw; an inexpensive, but workable wooden brace; and four shell bits.

If you attend enough of these shows, you start to make friends and see familiar faces.

Last year, I met Bob Baker, an antique tool restorer, who made a reproduction of the famous Thomas Falconer plane and a reproduction of one of my favorite planes—the Moisset.

Apparently, when they were dishing out bowls of talent, Bob went back for seconds. He's blessed with a heaping helping of it, as evidenced in his Moisset reproduction (shown above), which he made 27 years ago—his first attempt at carving.



At these shows, you'll find a lot of user tools that are just waiting to be adopted and put back to work. But you'll also find some rare and unusual ones.

Jim Bode carries a number of unique tools, some of which you may have seen in fine tool books. Poke around his site and you'll see what I mean. I snapped pictures of an ivory figurine of Japanese carpenters and a fish hammer.

The last group photo shows some pieces that will be auctioned off today.

But I'm sitting this one out and staying home to play with my new old tools instead.

29 comments:

Larry Marshall said...

"Inexpensive brace"???? That brace is gorgeous and looks like it's worth a million bucks. When you say "inexpensive" do you mean cheaper than your Lamborghini, or something else (gd&r)?

Thanks so much for the look into these events. Those of us living on other planets appreciate it.

Cheers --- Larry

Darnell said...

Nice saw, Kari, it has plenty of syle. I like the profile around the thumbscrew area.
Lee Valley has a pretty good sale on NOS auger bits right now, if you need some for your drill.

Darnell said...

Sorry, "brace". :)

Dave said...

You won't find anything like that in Cincy! You might come across a junk car part swap but that's about it...

Kari Hultman said...

Larry, it was only $40 and isn't the best brace, but it will work. No, my Lamborghini was much more expensive. ; )

Thanks for the tip, Darnell. I checked out Lee Valley's spoon bits, but they look a little different than the ones I bought. I'm wondering if mine are actually shell bits.

Dave, I'll remember that when I need to shop for parts for my Lamborghini. heh

archiphile said...

Glad I don't live closer. I would be very,very, broke. Thank you for sharing

Abi Parris said...

Methinks this is a straight up tool gloat all dressed up as a blog post! ;)

How's that shaving bench coming along?

Vic Hubbard said...

I wish I had $1500 to blow. I LOVE the Japanese figurine!!!

Badger said...

Now that I've been to PATINA, I'm even more insanely jealousy of your access to these shows.

It's gonna be a long time before I get out to another one.

EMBO said...

I love the tool chest. I'm a sucker for organization to begin with, and when it's beautiful, more the better. Next year we'll have to join you for this event!

Al Navas said...

Kari,

I am jealous that I was unable to make this auction... :( But seeing all the items in the photos makes me glad I did not go, or I might end up not making the mortgage payments for several months :)

Does FANTASTIC ring a bell? Thanks for sharing such treasures!

Al

Bob Easton said...

Well, I'm NOT jealous!

I might be sorry I didn't go, but not jealous because you, or someone else went. We all make choices and you chose to go to these events. Some of the rest of us chose not to go. Jealousy is about someone getting something others can't get. We can all (theoretically) go to the auctions. So, there shouldn't be any jealousy about going.

Now, about that brace. THAT we can be jealous about!!!

Nice collection of "toys!" Congrats.

... and THANKS for the pictures of all the beautiful toys you left for someone else.

Jeff Branch said...

Thant Moisset is too cool.

Kari Hultman said...

Archiphile, I'm careful to not take too much money with me to these things. ; )

Abi, no, no, this ALL for you guys! I got sidetracked with another project, so the shaving horse is on hold. Ah, if only we could quit our day jobs, there'd be so much more time to build stuff.

Vic, it was a very cool, very tiny sculpture. Hey, you have a bday coming up, right? Should I contact Sylvia???

Badger, you'll have to take a class at Olde Mill Cabinet Shoppe in October so you can attend the next show.

Emily, the tool chest was gorgeous. My photos don't do it justice. I'm curious to see what it sold for. The next show is in October--it's better than the spring one. You guys should come up!

Al, yeah, there were a number of other goodies I would like to have had, but one must be responsible. I guess.

Bob, the brace is pretty cool, but I've seen way nicer ones. The one I bought doesn't have the heft of the better ones, but it should do the job. The was a brace at the show with an $8,500 price tag!

Jeff, I agree. :o)

Dyami said...

Kari,
I congratulate you on your restraint. I'm proud to say I demonstrated the same self control while at the Northeast Woodworker's Show in Saratoga Springs today. Sitting in on Chris Schwarz's lecture was enough so I managed to leave without a purchase.

p.s. - check out the silly picture of Chris and Lathe video I threw up on TWW Community today.

Gye Greene said...

I like the blue tool chest -- although I question the placement of the interior drawers: seems like you'd throw out your back, getting stuff out of the bottom row... ;)


--GG

EMBO said...

Definitely let me know about the event in October! As long as it's not the same weekend as WIA. :)

Kari Hultman said...

Dyami, I'm glad to hear that you were able to control yourself. I hear there were some pretty sweet tools there. I would have caved.

Gye Green, that is the one thing about those tool chests, as pretty as they are. It seems like the tools would feel claustrophobic. Of course, we all know that tools don't have feelings. That's what my therapist tells me, anyhow.

Emily, I'll let you know as soon as I know.

Kari Hultman said...
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Kari Hultman said...
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Marc Z. said...

Nice brace

it look's a little bit like mine, but take a look :

http://wood-and-paperworks.blogspot.com/2009/05/alte-bohrer-vieux-meches-vintage-drill.html

Nice blog ;-D

Greatings from Luxemburg

Marc

Anonymous said...
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Gye Greene said...

Now **that** was a remarkably germane piece of BlogSpam:

Need wood? ;)


--GG

Kari Hultman said...

Oops, that one got by me. I try to delete those things. Consider it deleted!

Gye Greene said...

Heh! (I still thought it was amusingly on-topic.)


--GG

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Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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Gye Greene said...

Kari,


Given that you have "word verification" enabled on your "Comments" section -- apparently an actual person has to copy and paste those BlogSpam links, plus enter the Word Verification word.

So: somewhere out there, this is someones **job**. What a tedious line of work. I think I'd rather be a telemarketer.


--GG