Grandpa's Old Tool Chest.. Hundreds of Antique tools.

[duckhunter86]

So my grandpa owned a junk yard since the early 60's so that is where all of the model A wrenches came from. But he had this tool chest he threw all the odd tool he found in.  So when he retired he gave me the tool chest.  He loved early adjustable wrenches or odd looking one and there in there, there is alot of Ford, John Deere, Deere & Co, Deere Mansur, Coe's, Klean Cutter, there are some with swastikas on there too. (which of course pre-dates the nazi's BTW).  So here is some pics of the tools inside this massive chest.  If anyone spots something they are familar with or could identify i would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Guys!!!

http://s1143.photobucket.com/user/gordonj_86/slideshow/

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://s1143.photobucket.com/user/gordonj_86/embed/slideshow/"></iframe>

[Papaw]

You do have a bunch of wrenches. More than I realized when we talked on the phone.
Lots of common ones, but I see some really good ones in the groups.

[duckhunter86]

Which ones? Im pretty sure I seen an Ellis adjustable but will have to check them out tomorrow to make sure and find out what size it is.

[Papaw]

Might be an Ellis there. The curved adjustables ar popular, and the tractor wrenches have a following here also.

[rustcollector]

There are some pretty decent farm implement wrenches. Unfortunately, a couple of the better ones are broke. As far as ID'ing them, it would take a while to crop out each one and post a picture and ID. But it looks like most of the farm implement wrenches would be pretty self explanatory anyway.

Nice stuff, what are your plans with it?

[amertrac]

eifel plierwrench

[duckhunter86]

Ill probably donate it to the history musuem here in my grandpas name.

[rustcollector]

Ill probably donate it to the history musuem here in my grandpas name.

That's cool. Where is "here"?

[duckhunter86]

central missouri

[rustcollector]

I hope they display them if you donate some or all of them to them, I've seen to many that just store donations away and never really do much with it because they don't have much knowledge of the item that was donated. In Missouri I'll bet they will put up some sort of display though.
I'd check and see what their plans are first, and then either donate to them or let collectors that appreciate the items buy them. Most collectors appreciate the story behind a wrench as much as anybody does, and if you tell them the story behind those wrenches they won't forget it and probably will even tell the story every time somebody asks about the wrench.

If I had any money left I'd ask about a couple, but I just spent all my wrench money for quite a while now.

[turnnut]

nice collection there,  as for donating them, get them to agree to display them and not sell them off.

I had a real hard to find antique fire department hose hanging bracket that would be mounted way up in the
fire hose drainging tower, I was going to sell it, but decided to give it to the local antique fire dept. in town.

about 4 years later, I took a tour of there museum and asked about the hanger,  not one member that I 
talked to remembers ever seeing it at all.

did it wind up in a personal collection ????   did someone sell it ???

[mvwcnews]

As to museums "de-accessioning," Donnelly sold gobs of surplus from Colonial Williamsburg (last year I believe) and has the contents of a "Wentworth's Tool Museum" scattered among this years's auctions.
As a retired public library director who also had to deal with museum type issues, I can tell you that every museum gets swamped with way more stuff than they have room to store, much less display.

Dad & one of his tool collector friends helped identify & catalog tools that had been donated to the Nebraska State Historical Society over  the years.  One donation was a complete boat builder's tool kit that had been used to build & maintain  wooden hull  Missouri River steamboats back in the mid-late 19th Century.  It never got displayed.

[duckhunter86]

I understand completely it either takes years for them to display it or they sell it to make them some revenue.  But the problem is the same one i have with buying and selling arrowheads.  Wrench collectors or arrowhead collectors will pick threw your best stuff and leave you with all the cheaper tool making it hard to sell what you have left.  I would consider selling all of them but not piecing them out...

[rustcollector]

I'd say shoot a price out there then, never know you may get an interested party here. Doesn't hurt either way.

[stanley62]

Nice collection.  I wish they were in the MVWC auction at York.  I see quite a few I would like to bid on.

  Jim