Have grandfathers' old woodworking tools: how to show them

I have tools from my father, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather. Certainly spanning over a century. Quite honestly, of little meaning to anyone but me, for now. I hang them up in my workshop, curios for anyone that comes around. I keep them clean and oiled, to pass on to my son, and grandson.

I agree with the display idea. I put white peg-board around my whole machine shop with tools hanging conveniently near different machines. The antique tools are hung up high out of reach. I am not into visiting grave sites or other such things, but each time I pick up one of my father's tools which is often it, is a time to fondly remember him.

Hello Guest,

Good for you that unlike many people, you didn't throw them away.

You don't say your location, so remember that in humid climates the steel, brass and other metal parts will need to be first polished, then coated or oiled, to prevent corrosion.

Wooden parts may need re-varnishing or oiling, to keep the wood in good order, repel wood-destroying borers, and other insects and beetles who just love to eat wood for every meal.

Best to make a display wall, with small labels underneath, if the use of that historic tool, like so many old equipment items, is not immediately evident.

When you have completed all, why not Register here, do that anyway, and upload a photo (or several) of your "Historic Family Tools Collection.

When our Family farm was sold, I was far away, married with several children, and much historic tools and farm equipment was just given away, or sold as scrap.

Some of that equipment was more than 200 years old, carefully handed down to the oldest son, and now it has vanished elsewhere, to my great regret.

Looking forward to your photos, in the near future.

Kind Regards....

When my grandfather died I had to almost fight a couple of cousin who could only think of bagging them up and selling all his tools. Spme people have no respect or need for hertiage.

A couple of pics here would have been a nice start

I had thought you were asking more about how to mount them. Back in grade school, I made a tool board in shop class, modeled after the board that held the school's tools. Lay the tool on some wood or plywood, trade the shape, and cut out the wood pieces with a jigsaw and glue to them to a large board. Essentially you make custom cut-out hangars for each tool. For example, for a pair of scissors you might trace and cut out two round shapes to match the finger holes. For a pair of pliers, trace the outside and make a custom cutout to surround them. In shop class such tool boards also enabled us to see immediately when a tool was missing and what it was. So simple!

Guest,

I mounted many of the old tools I've collected on finished wood and hung them on the wall in my office. Mill ends and odd pieces of teak, pecky cypress and river recovered wood have done nicely. Discretely placed wire to hold the tools in place allows showing the tool without distraction.

I'm glad you decided to keep the tools as they reflect craftmanship mostly unappreciated as these days production over rides quality it seems.

If you decide on the trash can option I would like your address. I'm sure I would meet may of the folks here on trash collection day

I would bet your local school system would love for you to bring the tools of your grandfater around and give a talk to the children about how they were used.

They pay people you know to bring educational material that will inspre children to learn.

Worth a thought. Grand dad would be proud.

I have tools from 2 graddads which I use from time to time.

Here in USA we have State Fairs where you can display the old tools in a competition. Keep them oiled, preserved, and in a drawer or special tool box away from kids who may play with them and break them. For wooden handles ask an expert how to recondition the wood and preserve it. Take away the rust with mild acid (ask experts how) and preserve the metal.

Summary:

* Only a few people would be interested, so once you know who they are open the drawer and pull them out.

* Write down the stories of watching your grandfather use each tool. Ask family to tell the stories also but write them down per tool; where he bought it, how he paid for it (traded ?), etc. If this is about memories, write down those memories and show those memories in stories with each tool to others, teaching them the value of doing the same with their memories.

* DO NOT modify the tool to display it.

Enjoy your memories. Your arms and legs do not know if you are rich or poor. Only your brain knows. So create happiness with those memories inside your brain and you are more rich than people with memories of how they harmed others to get their wealth.

Dear Guest,

Since you plan on keeping the tools and display them:

1. Clean the tools

2. oil the metal parts with a light machine oil

3. polish all wooden parts with Pledge

3a. if the wooden part shows signs of wear, as you might expect from a hand sander leave the handle as is. The finish was removed over years of hand sanding. There is a lot of your Grandfather in "worn out" handles. Oiling the metal is an absolute necessity, rust never looks good on a hand tool.

4. Build or buy a wooden display case. Replace the rear of the display case with a pegboard. I would use "S" hooks to mount the tools onto the peg board with some clear tape at the bottom of the tool to keep it from shifting in the display. You might want to cover the front with half-inch Lexan - cuts down on maintenance. You might also consider a lamp for the inside of the case.

5. Since the tools, once placed in the display case, will be very heavy, lay out where each tool will go while the case is on it's back. When you are happy with your arrangement, remove the tools, mount the case to the wall and, unless you are drilling into solid wood, don't skimp on the molly-bolts.

Good luck and enjoy

/Ari (Orpheuse)

You may also want a "wax" based product like LPS-3 or cosmoline for preservation.

All the information that Ihave seen passed on in this thread is very good. I too have many tools passed down from my dad, both of my grandfathers, and a few from the great grandfathers.(I have no male cousins, so Ididn't have to fight anyone to get them.)

I have always felt that the best way I could honor my ancestors and their tools was by using them. In many ways, they are far superior to what is available today,and they just look so much better. I only wish my skills were at their level.

There are some that no amount of cleaning and refinishing will ever bring back to life, but I still have them in their place in the toolbox or on the wall with their newer cousins.

Contratulations to you for not selling these items off. Too many family heirlooms have become ebay material today.

For me it would depend on the type of tools. but with enough space in the lounge, a glass topped coffe table with a montage of woodworkers tools, and some shavings, and wood and so on, a set piece, like a section of a bench in use... sketches on scrap wood, plans... blood, part of a finger... no forget the last two...

Jim

I'm bachelor, and I think the kitchen table is a perfecly good place for a vice.

I carry my vice with me at ALL times.

All the talk about what to do with tools and way to many people mentioning throwing them away. Around my house it is a capitol offence the "throw away" a tool. It is shameful to mention that you even thought about it. :) I too have tools that my grandfather used and I try to use what of them I need and keep them all oiled and usable. My grandfather had one of the best combination squares I have ever seen. The tools they used back then were usually made allot better than todays tools. All this being said be careful about the older framing squares because these can be"out of square" many times. Re-squaring these is very easy if you have a center punch and a hammer but I have gotten burned by picking up a bad square in the past and using it without checking it. I used to buy blacksmith tongs at yard sales and flea markets when I would run across them. Many of these were handmade over 100 years ago. It makes since to do this when it could take several hours to build a certain style/size tongs you need for a particular job. I made some fancy mounting brackets on the anvil to hang some of the older unused tools on. The bigger tools get their own individual bracket while some of the smaller ones get hung along with their buddies on a "community" bracket.

pipewelder

Build a glass front display case and put them in there to give the impression of value and curator preservation (like in a museum). Otherwise they just look like old tools. You want to convey the sense that these tools are to precious to be used...even if they are. You can even put little plaques indicating tool date, history, use...things like that. When people look at tools hung on a wall or wall board, the will not be so much impressed with the tools as the are with the tool owner's neatness and sense of organization. That would be the wrong idea for getting the tools noticed on their own, historic merits.

However you end up deciding to display them, and there are some great suggestions here, be sure you pay attention to the ones advising labeling the tools. A note about what it is and how it was used is a wonderful addition to the display! I have a cousin who now holds a collection of old tools (hundreds!) including my Father's and our Grandfather's. My Dad had a set of molding planes he had gotten from an old-time cabinet maker. These were old box planes already a century ago. Sam has them displayed as well.

Quite a few awesome suggestions already, so the path of my response will be along a different line.

Agreeing that the best way to honor a tool is to use it, but assuming from the original poster that, unlike his grandfather, he is not a woodworker and that the preference is for display.

Although there are many awesome suggestions for displaying in the garage as you originally mentioned, I have to ask.. how many guests do you currently invite into your garage? And what do you currently do in your garage?

Will your activities blend well with a woodworking tool display, or... if you're big into welding, as an example, will the display continuously get dirty or require covered. From experience I will say that over time of repeatedly covering something for protection, the cover eventually just stayed on.

Also, it was not really clarified the type of tools we are talking about either and 'woodworking' has a pretty broad range of related tools.

You've already received a plethora of good information related to mounting and preserving. So I'm going to address it from a different perspective and talk about some traits of good display and a process that I found to work really well, that keeps the interest high, and didn't turn it into a chore or some monumental task.

1. First decide if you want to display all the tools in a single area or make individual displays. My preference is for the latter. It makes it easier, breaks one task into many small ones, provides for display rotation which keeps it fresh.

A. If you want to display all of them, then lay them out, clean and preserve them with a short-term preservation method (oil, etc) take a photo and post it to this thread with some of your ideas and we'll help you kick them around.

B. If you want to display them individually, then select those top 5 or 10 and repeat the rest of step A. Take the balance and store them in a sturdy toolbox or chest, again treated for preservation.

And, of vital importance and already mentioned above, include name and use of the tools with them in storage. You would be amazed at how quickly this knowledge is lost over time.

Note on preservation, unless you plan on encapsulating the tool forever into a table surface, the type of preservation method you should select should always be removable and you should be able to return the tool to an operable condition. And also, some of the best characteristics of an old tool are those things that make them appear old, their patina. Yes you want to clean and oil but don't go wild on polishing and total rust removal until after you've settled on your plan.

2. Determine how to incorporate the result of your grandfather's woodworking into the display. If he made large items then we're probably talking about photos. And photos can be incorporated quite well... burn the edges maybe and lacquer them to the mounting surface or back panel of the shadowbox.

If his work is small, then maybe you could even incorporate one of his items into the display of the tool used to make the item.

If neither of these are feasible options then think about how you can incorporate the result of that tools use in the display. Is it a plainer... then some shavings, a saw... then some saw dust, a chisel... then some chips. And use the tool you are displaying to make the chips, shavings, etc.

3. Where to display them. The purpose of a display is to showcase them to others, and the garage may not be the best place for this as the traffic flow there is generally limited to those that use the space daily.

A. In Home Display. Determine how many you'd like to display and where... bookshelf, mantle, end table, wall hanging, etc. Then select twice the number of tools that would display best in those spaces. This way you can rotate the displays out and keep the home décor fresh to those that see it every day.

Then design the displays. If you seem to have a hard time with this, enlist the local community college art department students for assistance. I'm more than certain they will come up with some really cool and exciting suggestions. You could then turn towards your local technical/trade school for assistance in building the actual displays if assistance is required in that area as well.

B. In Garage Display. If you still decide to display them in your garage, the display should be functional an fit that environment. But, again... the issue is traffic flow and how to expose the display to others.

Select a stand-out piece and make an in-home display for it, placed where guests in your home are sure to see it. It then starts the conversation and provides a reason to take them into the garage and show off the rest of the collection.

In closing, you are going to have a great time with this, I know I did when it came to 3 generations of drafting tools. Unfortunately they were all eventually lost in a fire. But one of my hallmark pieces was an enclosed shadowbox wall hanging for an ink compass and pens. In it was a portion of one of my great-grandfathers original ink on cloth detail drawings, an original ink bottle and other accessories sitting on a little internal shelf, and some geometric shapes in the background designed using the original pieces by a local art student.

I found it became a conversation piece regardless of the persons background or interest, it was just a really cool display.

*sniff* never realized how bad I still miss it until writing this post.

JavaHead

When I was an apprentice, just a few years back, my Foreman showed me a poster of a tool cabinet that was in the Smithsonian Institute. It had belonged to a cabinet maker who worked for a piano company. It was extraordinarily compact and decorated with masonic iconography that was done in ivory and assorted timbers. I have had a look at the Smithsonian site but haven't seen it there yet.

My family are seafarers so tool have always been in tool boxes or chests. A useful addition to the box or chest is oak shavings. The tannin seems to coat the tools and gives the a darker hue, it stops them rusting so long as they are put away clean and dry. Clean as in no rusty dirt, a bit of grease and oil is all to the good for metal working tools

Wood working tools should be kept separate from metal working tools as grease and oil can stain timber and make varnishing or painting awkward.

BAB

Some tools when being forged are dipped in oil during the hardening. This may contribute to rust proofing and patina. Unless a tool has heavy rust on it I would not clean it in anything other then WD-40 / kerosene. Heavy rust could be removed with Naval Jelly, then some heat and quench in oil.

The mason's on a construction site would come to the electrician (me) to borrow a screwdriver, and bring it back at the end of the day after they cleaned concrete forms all day with it, the tip was all rounded over and the screwdriver was junk. They would throw it in the toolbox before I saw it and say "Thank You, see you tomorrow."

I was checking circuits one time and got across a hot one (125VDC battery bank with about 20 batteries) the tip of the jumper was blown off, the head of the screw was missing, the battery charger ceased to work and drained (ruined) the battery bank within days.