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Old Tools

 My son has developed an interest in old tools.  Hee wants to own them,  use them a bit and display them in his bedroom.  In the last weekend in April Isaac year the local agricultural cooled run field  days. You can buy anything from tractors as big as a house to individual chickens. There is also a crusty collection of old guys and men from India demonstrating or selling old tools.

   We went, we bought old tools,  and handles for old tools,  but that's not what I want to talk about.  The highlight of the day was talking with a very old gentleman about his collection of hand tools.  Hee proudly showed us his hand handmade shifting spanner dating from the 1830s, then we thenamd about other tools that caught our attention. The topic got around to certain tools made by apprentices and the quality of older steels. Hee let us handle them.  The showed us a "real screwdriver with a one piece steel shaft that you can hit without it splitting.  I told him that "when I was an apprentice my Leading Hand gave me his old screwdrivers,  that he had made". I proudly added that they would be 100 years old now. Then Old Tool Man showed us a handmade hacksaw, 10" blade,  weathered grey black steel,  stamped diamond pattern in the reach,  innovative cam blade tensioner. I rubbed it,  was amazed at the workmanship and suddenly I felted the old men that had made and used this tool.  I looked again and saw wear marks on the handles of these steel tools and mumbled "you can feel the old hands that have used these tools!". For the first time ever,  since completing my trade in Fitting and Machining,  I realised that steel was not impersonal and cold.  Steel could be warm and soft as wood is known to be. It tells stories. As I stumbled for composure and quickly unhandled the tool to the table,  The Old Tool Man too, struggling for composure said: "Oh yeh". Two old guys,  probably long since given up on expressing affection for woman folk and stumbling under a weight of cynicism for modern life, choking up about old tools and old tool men.

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