Works Progress Administration & Civilian Conservation Corp Marked Tools

[pedimoto]

Looking to buy any and all tools Stamped W.P.A. or C.C.C. . Wooden handled tools are usually burnt marked with initials. Steel is either stamped or engraved. Thank you

[Papaw]

Welcome to Tool Talk!
That is an interesting collection focus. Don't think I have ever seen any.

[john k]

Some 30 years ago I talked with 3 men that had been in a CCC camp.  When things wound down and they prepared to close the camp, the tools, shovels, axes, spades, hoes, pitch forks, and what all were gathered up.   One morning one of the directors had them loaded into a truck, 4 of the older guys  were loaded into another truck and they went  into the hills.  By noon they were back, and the story soon spread that the tools were buried in a pit then covered.  It seems that when the camps were first being closed, the tools were dispersed to the men, and the local hardware stores complained bitterly that they couldn't sell another shovel for 5 years.  Heard this same story on the web a few years ago too.  I have seen one shovel, and one scoop shovel stamped CCC, thats it.  I did hear of someone digging up some axe heads with the stamping recently.  Good luck in your quest.

[HeelSpur]

Some 30 years ago I talked with 3 men that had been in a CCC camp.  When things wound down and they prepared to close the camp, the tools, shovels, axes, spades, hoes, pitch forks, and what all were gathered up.   One morning one of the directors had them loaded into a truck, 4 of the older guys  were loaded into another truck and they went  into the hills.  By noon they were back, and the story soon spread that the tools were buried in a pit then covered.  It seems that when the camps were first being closed, the tools were dispersed to the men, and the local hardware stores complained bitterly that they couldn't sell another shovel for 5 years.  Heard this same story on the web a few years ago too.  I have seen one shovel, and one scoop shovel stamped CCC, thats it.  I did hear of someone digging up some axe heads with the stamping recently.  Good luck in your quest.

Thats an interesting story, I'll keep my eyes peeled for them.

[Papaw]

They may all be in Oily's backyard!

[john k]

Oily has a metal detector now, I say we all grab a shovel and stop by, okay?

[Brian]

Most of the Works tools were sold at various government auctions after the war if they were not scraped for the War effort. The CCC tools generally were assigned to individuals and after disbanding those individuals left the Corp with their tools, but I have heard of scrapping efforts, and turning over tools to the Department of Interior for parks use as well. In the 80s, I bought a group of seventeen damaged WPA tools at a government auction in Idaho, that were said to have come from Yellowstone.

[clovis]

I own a WPA brush axe and just acquired a regular long handled WPA axe.

I have seen a long handled WPA spade (called a shovel around here) at a tool show about 5 years ago, but it sold before I could get over to see it.

[clovis]

It seems that when the camps were first being closed, the tools were dispersed to the men, and the local hardware stores complained bitterly that they couldn't sell another shovel for 5 years. 

The WPA tools that I've seen seem to be such high quality that the hardware stores were probably complaining that they wouldn't sell another tool for 50 years.

Why can't we still buy tools of this quality anymore?

[Branson]

Why can't we still buy tools of this quality anymore?

We probably can, someplace, but we wouldn't like the price.  And companies make money by selling replacements.  Been going on for so long that a lot  of people figure it's the way things are supposed to be.  I just got a free 14 volt Makita because it was cheaper to replace it (with a cheap cordless) than to buy a new battery.

[clovis]

Why can't we still buy tools of this quality anymore?

We probably can, someplace, but we wouldn't like the price.  And companies make money by selling replacements.  Been going on for so long that a lot  of people figure it's the way things are supposed to be.  I just got a free 14 volt Makita because it was cheaper to replace it (with a cheap cordless) than to buy a new battery.

Yeah, you are probably right. Cost would be a factor.

I wish I had the money and opportunity to manufacture top quality outdoor tools. While I know nothing about the industry, I'd love to give it a try...and I think I could be very successful. I'd focus on quality, and sell it through the remaining locally owned hardware and lumber stores. We all know that the big box stores would laugh at the idea and product.

[Bill Foster]

My Grandfather was in the C.C.C. and I have a shovel he gave my Mom that he said was from there it
Is marked U.S.E.D. does anyone know anything about this?

[bear_man]

Clovis: Sometime in the '50s, I deduce from my knowledge of woodworking tools, the average homeowner would no longer pay for "quality tools." That's when high-quality handsaws and handplanes (at least) went the way of the dodo — so to speak.
  I'm in the panhandle of Idaho, roughly between Lewiston, ID, and Missoula, MT, off of US Hwy. 12/Middlefork Clearwater River, and there used to be a CCC camp up towards the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness a few miles east of me, so I've watched for tools so-marked — not knowing if there were such things, but it was a federal endeavor, after all, and I thought "maybe…" Late last year I finally broke down and wire-wheeled my NOW-favorite auction-acquired splitting wedge (it's the most-effective design I've ever used) because it got to where I couldn't pick it up without it sticking to my hand. What appeared underneath the gunk was a "6" (for pounds) and on the opposite side was "CCC" in surprisingly small capital letters. That's the only such marking I've seen in over 60 years of being a tool-user/-collector.
  I know a woman who wrote/is writing a book about "local" CCC camps and I'll share the above thread and ask her and get back to this thread.

[john k]

That would be some interesting reading, I will be watching for it.   I am in eastern Nebraska, there is still evidence of the CCC camp 5 miles down the road from me.  A concrete foundation, and some water works in the form of a small fountain surrounded by sidewalk back in the trees.  I was once inside a home that was moved, then converted from the cook house of that camp.  Been to dozens of farm auctions in this area, and still looking for my first camp tool.

[bear_man]

Priscilla Wegars did finally publish it and it's titled As Rugged as the Terrain: CCC "Boys," Federal convicts, and World War II Alien Internees wrestle with a mountain Wilderness.  My memory may've glitched because the book purports to be about a CCC camp just off of US Hwy. 12 on Canyon Creek.  Happy reading, those so inclined.   (O: