My name is Terry, and I am from central Minnesota. A few of you may recognize me from some other forums, primarily machine shop related.
When I was younger, old tools were exactly that to me: old tools. The new shiny ones always seemed like the better way to go. As the years have gone by and I got older I started to have a certain appreciation of older tools. I always wondered what tales they could tell if they could only talk, even if just for a little bit.
My appreciation and interest really grew when I inherited my grandfather's old Kennedy toolbox. He was a machinist by trade for most of his life, and there were many tools in his toolbox that would be able to tell some stories, I am sure.
The one item in that toolbox that really gets me though is his old pipe. I know, it's not a tool, but it was his and it is there just the same. I clearly remember him smoking "Borkum Riff" tobacco in his pipe. He passed away in 1978 at the age of 62, and his toolbox sat, unopened, in grandma's garage until about ten years ago when I inherited it. It still sits, largely unchanged, in my shop. From time to time I peruse its contents and think about him and how he made his living.
I took up machine shop work just out of high school, but decided it wasn't for me after about a year of drilling the same holes in the same part, hundreds of times per day, for most of that time. I do enjoy machine work, however, and now have my own lathe, two mills, drill press, etc., and derive much enjoyment from the many varied projects that I get myself into. I often think of my grandpa as well as three of my great uncles that were machinists when I am working in my shop, and silently thank them for passing on that interest in working with metals, tools, and my own two hands.
