sutton083

Friday morning I was running out of bread.  My favorite white bread around here is from a small bakery in Bridgetown (where Heather was born). So we did a bread run this morning. While we were going that way, may as well keep on trucking west to Annapolis Royal for a chocolate run Tm. You know,  that little shop with the perfect business model for me : - Hand made chocolate (delicious) - A new/used book section (must have) - And her hubby, Terry sells antique and specifically, tools (can it get better??, somebody pinch me :-) It was so good to see Terry, up and around, gabbing about tools.  Its been a while I saw him, he is battling a serious illness.   While we were discussing something about Stanley, I spied a metal brace with a Sampson chuck on it?  Don't see that often around here. So $20 later it was mine, no argument there. Yes, it has some issues, hence the low price, with the enclosed ratchet mechanism (happens a lot, cause by the hardening grease they ...

Another fresh find, this one is practically unused and in NOS (New Old Stock) condition, well almost... Its from the seasonal flea market in Wilmot, same vendor from whom I  have been getting some good braces and Hand drills lately. Including that mechanical marvel, the North Bros 1545, I sent to Gerhard. When I see her, now I just ask her what she got for tools and she shows me stuff she has not unpacked yet, for lack of space. I guess you can say, I get 1st dibs  :-) Today, when she shown me this brace, I was immediately taken aback how new it looked, yet, it is well made in the older tradition. No plastic, all metal, plated with wood (Beech, no stain, varnished), ball bearings in the head, ink markings almost perfect etc. For $20? Did not even bothered haggling for it, take my money please. See anything wrong yet? Footprint Sheffield England Footprint ratchet brace No 170 10 in sweep BS1978 NO, that brace is not dated 1978, it reads British Standard (BS) 1978. This just ha...

It took me a long time to acquired my first one, a Sheffield plated brace, from Ebay back in the days... Lately, they seems to pop up more often in my local searches, go figure...!!! I wrote earlier about the development of the brace, here I only made provision for one wooden brace in my ongoing Boring till, but I now own 4. All lined up to give you an idea of relative sizes The first one to arrived about 15 years ago, via EBay, was this Sheffield plated brace manufactured by Abbot. It feature the button chuck, which relies on a notch cut on one side  of the tapered square tang of the brace bit. Next was another local finds, last year, while out buying handsaws, responding on a Kijiji sale... When I asked if he had anything else, this is what I spotted. This one was manufactured by Barton Also featuring the ubiquitous button holder. Since there was no real standard, the location of the notch required varies. In this pic, the bit inserted does not goes deep enough. Then came across...