Where Are All the Gerstner Tool Chests

I remember those from my days of having work done in the Motorola model shop. "Model" meaning custom machined one-offs used in the aerospace industry.

These were all master machinists, mostly from the "old" country who could make anything.

Who knows where the tools are?

90 results for Gerstner tool chests

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Yes, I have seen a few old ones on E-bay, but most are new ones, and many from "Gerstner International" which are cheep Chinese copies of the originals.

Antique and Vintage Tool Boxes - Collectors Weekly

A lot of them are collected and traded....

http://myauctionfinds.com/2012/10/10/the-jewelry-box-style-of-antique-tool-chests/

My dad had one which he kept pristine along with all of his machinist tools inside it.

After he passed, I had it shipped from FL where he was living to my house. I then parted out most of the tools and also sold the chest to a collector for a very nice price.

I was told by a German die maker that the main advantage of a wooden tool chest was to control humidity and that Gerstner boxes were made of a wood that had natural rust preventing properties.

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/gerstner-tool-chest

They are beautiful. Just like the mechanical jewels they once stored and protected.

Beautiful tools are jewelry.

The boxes themselves are obviously (hopefully) valued, sold or kept and re-purposed, but, what happened to the tool jewels that were once inside?

Intriguing and sad.

A fellow machinist at work collects them, and has 5 0r 6. He was lucky enough to purchase one that is a "one off" design that the company never mass produced. He does not have tools in them, they are proudly displayed in his living room. The original boxs are becoming valuable, as evidenced by the recent auctions I have attended that had a couple. The bidding was to the moon, way out of my price range.

Where? Several have become treasures in my family. My father-in-law was a very successful self taught mechanical engineer. He had a strong love for Gerstner tool chests and the sentimental value for them. As a Christmas present soon after we were married he took an old Gerstner chest and completely rebuilt and refinished it. He gave it to me as a gift. It looked so good I wasn't allowed to use it for tools. I gave it to my wife and she has used it as a jewelry box for all her "junk" ever since. Seeing that, he gave me a brand new large Gerstner Tool chest and base for "treating his daughter so well"!

I refurbished an old one and gave it to my brother. His daughters loved it so much we found several others ones, refurbished them all and gave each of his daughters one for jewelry boxes. Each girl is very proud of their "jewelry boxes" and they display each in prominent places in their homes. They are especially proud of their father and uncle for putting so much time and effort in for each of them. The daughters have now asked for a tool chest jewelry box for each of the grand-daughters.

One family: Was 3, now 7, will be 12!

Good Luck, Old Salt

I found around 90 of them on Ebay along with some hardware for them.

Bill