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The
Midwest Tool Collectors Association
The
Message Tree Staff
Near
the corner of Battlefield and Kansas in Springfield
Missouri, there is a retail establishment with a
business plan that is different from most of the
other businesses in the Queen City of the Ozarks.
Although the name of the business conjures up
memories of college classes, Wood Working-101 is
nothing like those courses that you attended at the
University, but rather a wood workers supply where
the staff is so friendly, you will be reminded of
the home town hardware store you remember from your
youth, the kind of place where you can go and talk
woodworking and the staff will not make you feel
like you have to buy something or leave their
store. Jon and Joe, if nothing else, make everyone
that finds their way through their door
welcome.
Now
I am sure that you are thinking "O.K. Ed, what has
this got to do with Ozarks History and Heritage,"
right? Well each Saturday morning, the guys at Wood
Working-101 have some sort of wood working activity
planned, with everything from free demonstrations
and displays to classes that have a minimal tuition
fee. It was during one of these Saturday morning
events that we had the pleasure to view a display
of antique hand tools sponsored by members of the
Mid West Tool Collectors Association, who were so
kind as to bring out some of their more unusual as
well as common hand tools. Devices that were the
everyday tools of the craftsman during the golden
era of wood working, a time when the woodworker
used tools powered by elbow grease, a time when
woodworkers had to have an understanding, to feel a
kinship, with the wood. A time when quality, pride
of accomplishment and craftsmanship were
synonymous.
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Loyd Henley's collection of
Stanley Marking guages.
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Since
its inception in 1968, the not for profit
organization has grown from 16 tool collectors in
the Chicago area to more than 4000 members across
the United States, Canada, Europe, and many other
countries. Dedicated to the preservation and study
of the early hand tools used by our ancestors, The
Mid-West Tool Collectors Association, through their
program of annually publishing reproductions of old
out of print catalogs and books that deal with the
subject of hand tools, their quarterly newsletter,
The Gristmill, their web site
(http://www.mwtca.org) as well as their local and
national meetings, seeks to educate the tool
aficionado about the time in our history when hand
tools were actual works of craftsmanship if not
art.
Now
folks your editor of The Message Tree, really has
not gone off of the deep end, comparing a
woodworking hand tool to art, not when you consider
that there was a time when the tool manufacturers
and their employees took as much pride in their
products as the woodworker took in making his
wares. Stop and think about the days long gone by
when the tool maker was more concerned with quality
than the number of units produced and the financial
bottom line. Just pick up one of these antique
tools and look at the tolerances or how well the
pieces fit together, a testimony to the craft of
the tool maker. Look at the quality of the
castings, the degree of finish work done to the
steel, the quality of the wood used in the handles
and the finish applied to such. If you will take
all of the above into consideration, you will
agree, that old tools can be considered an art
form.
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Gene Hunton's Stanley Plane,
cutters, and original box, a tool used to
perform shaping functions as we would use
a modern day electric router, shaping or
miling machine.
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The
members of the association that your The Message
Tree editor interviewed, that Saturday morning said
that they originally became interested in the
association and tool collecting when they were
searching for quality hand tools to actually use.
In this day and age, when most craftsmen simply
don't have time to use hand-powered tools, favoring
powered devices instead, it is hard to find if not
impossible, due to lack of demand, quality hand
tools. And yes there are still some of us that find
great pleasure in creating a wood project with hand
tools rather than modern electric and battery
powered implements. Out of this drive to find
usable antique tools, these members of the
association found an interest in collecting and the
study of the history of the various devices.
The hand saw in the background of
this photo features an adjustible depth
stop.
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Disston
Saws predating 1900 were among the collection of
Loyd Henley, one of which caught my attention was a
hand saw with a depth stop that Mr. Henley
described as rare. The adjustable stop attached to
the side of the saw was used to make a cut in a
piece of wood to a predetermined depth. This
feature would have been handy to the craftsman
making several parallel cuts to a certain depth,
then with a wood chisel removing the remaining wood
left standing between the cuts, creating a wide
slot or "dado" type cut.
Gene Hunton explaing the history of
antique tools to one of the many visitors
to the exhibition.
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"Yankee
Ingenuity" and "Necessity Being The Mother Of
Invention," are two phrases that describe some of
the tools in the collection of one of the other
exhibitors at the collectors show and tell. Gene
Hutton's collection featured, among other things,
off set hand drills so designed as to allow the
user to drill holes against a vertical or
horizontal surface, where standard brace and bits
would have been impractical. Other unusual tools in
his collection included the watch maker pliers used
to spread open retaining springs found in antique
pocket watches. Mr. Hutton also had taken the time
to search the online internet services of the
United States Patent office for the mechanical
drawings submitted by the designer or patent holder
of some of the tools in his collection.
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Antique Watch maker's pliers
and patent drawings, from the collection
of Gene Hunton.
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Both
Henley and Hutton were more than happy to answer
questions from the public that toured the free
exhibition, telling anyone willing to listen, the
history of the tools and their use, thereby helping
to preserve the knowledge of our colorful past, and
the tools that our Fathers took for granted. Some
of the tools are common and of little collectible
value, others rare and worth several hundred
dollars, but all were unique and interesting.
So
my friends, that is why The Message Tree made the
decision to publish this article, this display of
antique tools and the dedication of their owners to
taking the time to research and study the history
of the tools and their manufacturers, is in keeping
with our goal of providing you with the news that
the love of history is alive and well. As we scour
the hills we find folks everyday that have an
interest in our history and its preservation, from
the small town museums, traditional craft classes
at Silver Dollar City and elsewhere, to the
exhibitions put on by serious collectors, the hills
are a virtual cornucopia of dedicated individuals
and groups working hard to preserve our American
heritage.
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