Its pretty common for us to give each other new gimicky tools for Christmas. Round knob sockets, quick grip wrenches... whatever new and interesting tool that basically does the same old thing catches our eye. My dad did not disappoint this year. He gave me an open thru bolt socket set. The ratchet engages the outside of the socket instead of the inside so it can go over studs of any length. That was interesting, and I am sure there are times when it will come in handy, but after the festivities of the morning were over we wandered out to his truck and he gave me a truly good Christmas present. One that can't be beat by any new gimicky tool.
My grandfather (my mom's dad) had given him a bunch of machinists tools some time in the past. He (my grandfather) was a job setup machinist. My mom told me for every hour of hour of overtime he worked over the years (way
he bought new. Others he got from other machinists. There were a number of right angle blocks, some gages and standards for certain things. Double angle bars for measuring hole diameters with a regular micrometer, micrometers, dial indicators, dial test indicators, v-blocks, and sine bars. At today's prices it would take thousands of dollars to replace, but in the prices of the day they were thousands of hours of overtime worked. Maybe tens of thousands. Many of the wooden boxes are falling apart, and because they were stored in a building that lost a roof at one time some things are made nearly worthless from rust. (Both sine bars are rust damaged sadly.) Not a single thing is a cheap tool. They all carry names like Starrett and Brown & Sharp. It might seem like a small thing to some folks but it is something to me. At the time I refused to carry the tools into the shop (would have been a couple huge armloads). I went and got a tool cart to carry them. Two days later I am still thinking about it. Many of these tools were used during WWII. Some may have been used during WWI. A couple have patent dates from before the turn of the last century.
I am torn on some of them. The wooden boxes are falling apart, and I want to make new boxes for them, but I hate to throw away the old boxes that may be 80 years old or more. Many of them I plan to check and use in my own shop.
Thanks Dad, and thank you Grampa John Klements. (1899 - 1986 (I think))
I'll post a picture or picture link of some of them later.