This past Thursday and Friday I made my bi-annual pilgrimage to the ‘Live Free or Die’ Tool Show and Auction in Nashua, NH.

I always enjoy hunting for whatever oddball tool I have on my wish list or whatever new treasure I didn’t know I couldn’t live without until I discover it.

Beyond my own tool shopping its good to see old friends and familiar faces at the show.

Some years you’ll see tons of a given type of item, other years that same item might be real hard to come by. This year hand drills and Stanley 45s and 55s seemed to be plentiful.

Tool chests on the other hand were not in season it seems. So I grabbed a few snapshots of what I saw this time out, but nothing overly notable.

Some years I come home with a ton of stuff from my mental list and some times I don’t get much but I still come home with some finds. This time out I got some great deals and found several items I’d been hunting for, for a long time. I found a nice LARGE Starrett No. 85 dividers which are great for laying out staircases and other large scale projects. I also got a deal I could not pass up on another Tite-Mark, an Ulmia Moving Fillister plane and a nice old Starrett depth gauge with a real nice micro adjustment knob. Since the last show I seem to be really into Miller’s falls double gear hand drills — which I first learned about from my friend Tom Fidgen. Last year I picked up a #5 that I now use all the time. This time I got 2 real nice #2s an a nice #3 for the shop.

I also found some nice old tool catalogs including a 1938 Starrett Catalog, a reprint of an 1883 Atha Tool Company Catalog, and a book from the 1950s on old Virginia furniture with great shop drawings inside. My favorite find which was given to me for free is an old EAIA Pamphlet from 1971 that was put together for Old Bethpage Village in NY (which I remember going to in grade school) called ‘Of Plates and Purlins — Grandpa builds a Barn’ This great little pamphlet has a very Eric Sloane-esque feel to it and walks through the basics of building a dutch barn.

And last but not least was as real nice forged cant hook from Maine. In the coming weeks I need to clear some land out in the yard for a forthcoming timber framed barn/shed so I am sure it will get some good use.

Now it’s time to get out to the workshop, try out the new toys and start and start saving for the next show in April….

Take care,
-Bill