# Grandpa's basement: The workbench that keeps on giving



## jtrz (Mar 10, 2015)

Every once in a while when I am visiting with my grandparents I sneak down to the basement to rifle through my grandfather's old bench and see what I can find. He tells me I can have everything down there but I've been slowly picking through it. Mind you , the bench is mostly covered in the tools, hardware, and materials one uses for odd jobs around the house. There was a large plumbing snake lying right on top of everything that kept me from getting too close to the bench for years.

So here is the handful of tools I grabbed the other day when I wandered into the basement. 



























Some hefty army issue chisels. These most likely weren't issued to him (there is someone else's initials, followed by 1944) because he was a fighter pilot in the early days of the war and had already finished his tour of duty by 1944. The framing chisels all read "Winsted Edge Tool Works Winsted Conn USA". The small cold chisel reads "Unitool Tempered Steel Made in USA"










Above we have a Pexto and a Fulton 8" drawknife. The small brace drill doesn't have any markings that I've found but the larger one is a Pine Knot No. 300 (one of the Belknap Tool Co.'s brands).










The egg beater hand drill reads Yankee with some other markings that I can't make out. The hammer is a 12 oz Estwing.









The saw is a Sanvdik No. 273 which I think is a cross-cut saw. I was a little leary when I saw the plastic handle but looked down the blade and it is straight as an arrow and now that I've done a little cleaning on the blade I think it might be a pretty nice little find.

I'll post some more pics as the cleaning progresses. So there you have it. If any one has any knowledge or experience with any of these let me know.

Thanks


----------



## dannyfogog (Jun 26, 2018)

Great tools!
I have similar vintage hand driven Stanley drill.
This it belong to my father and he died in 1956.


----------



## donwilwol (May 16, 2011)

Fantastic


----------



## jtrz (Mar 10, 2015)

I just realized that the Yankee eggbeater is missing it's other handle. Hopefully it is still in one of the many piles on the bench. I found a Stanley no 25 t-bevel on the bench that is missing it's locking lever. The lever could be long gone or in one of the many mason jars filled with nuts and bolts. Luckily it still had the bolt.

The framing chisels are really interesting to me. They seem to have flat backs their entire length and I could see them being helpful for joint making in the shop. Maybe they are used for that or maybe I am way off and they should be left to building log cabins.


----------



## CyberDyneSystems (May 29, 2012)

Those chisels deserve a nice restoration and will likely out perform anything you can buy new.


----------



## jtrz (Mar 10, 2015)

Yeah, the chisels are going to be first. I am going to start with the big daddy 1" but I'm not sure what to do with the handle. Somebody was going to town on this thing with their mallet on this guy. Here is what the end of the handle looks like…



























I'm thinking that I just take off the wood that the hoop dug a groove into a split. Then get the hoop nice and snug again and chisel off the wood that will be protruding through the hoop. I don't see myself pounding as hard on this thing as my grandpa apparently did so it should be fine. Maybe I'll through some CA glue into the end to strengthen the wood in case it is ready to start splitting again.

This is all new to me so if anyone has another idea let me know.

Thanks


----------

