The Whole Garage Catalogue: March 2016

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

An 8" x 12" Framing Square

This square is inch on one side.

And metric on the other.

That sort of inch/metric combination has always struck me as a poor one.

Whichever system you're working in, if you need to flip the tool over for the sake of convenience at any point, you lose the scales you've been using.

That aside, it's not a bad little framing square. It was made in Korea (South Korea, presumably).

The red label on the inch side says,

"8 x 12 SQUARE
Parkerized black steel with etched white markings. Scales in 1/16ths and 1/32nds. Distributed only through the wholesaler by Smith-Wolff Co., Inc.. Mt. Vernon, N.Y. 10553. Unconditionally Guaranteed"

There's also a partially obliterated catalogue number that may be "SW583", and a logo that may read "top-spec".

From what can get from the internet, it appears that the Smith-Wolff firm is no longer with us.

I still have space on the rack where I keep framing squares, so I'll stash this item there with the others.

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Monday, March 28, 2016

A General No. 1201 12" Steel Rule

General still listed essentially the same tool in their January 2014 catalogue, although it's catalogue number was 1201ME. There are slight differences in the scales between the 1201 and the 1201ME.

I already have all the 12" rules I need; this one can hang on the nail where I keep some other rules.

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Sunday, March 27, 2016

Bates National Rule BNR-15 15" Steel Rule

It's a difficult subject to photograph well, but there it is.

It's quite a good steel rule, with a cork backing. I really don't care for cork backings on rules -- I can get by just fine without the alleged 'non-slip' feature of them, and the way that the backing raises the rule up off a surface is inconducive to accuracy because of the parallax effect that's introduced.

From what I can see on the internet, the Bates Manufacturing Company of Hackettstown, New Jersey has disappeared into the mists of time.

The rule has a hole in it at one end for hanging, so I'll hang on the nail where I have a few other rules hanging.

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Introduction

This blog is in honour of my deceased father, Nick Gaspick.

It sprang from what had started out as merely a post on my workshop blog, Rouge River Workshop. Here's my introduction to that post:

"My son has been clearing out my deceased father's garage, so he'll have a place to restore an old car, and he's been finding all manner of stuff. I've begun one post about an old woodworking vise that I mean to restore. This weekend, my son brought me four toolboxes full of items. As a small honour to my father, I'll 'catalogue' them in this post, in no particular order, little-by-little as I go through the boxes."

The nature of the post was for it to grow ever longer, and that can be dangerous. Blogger has some quirks that I've experienced in the past, and I was getting tired of always backing up the entire post so I wouldn't lose it should Blogger vapourize an editing session. I finally decided to make a full-blown blog with an index out of the post. Here it is.

I'll leave the original post as it is, where it is, but I'll bring over all the items in it so far as individual, indexed posts here as well. Needless to say, new material will only appear here.

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A Little About My Father:

My father emigrated to Canada with his family from Croatia at about the age of seven. His family took on a homestead up Sudbury, Ontario way, and made a living there through the great depression.

My father loved school, and yearned to continue his schooling past grade eight, but that was not on. He had to leave school to make a living -- trapping, mining, whatever. Eventually, he and his made their way to Toronto -- the big smoke in Canada.

My father was built like a brick shit-house; he was a sturdy guy, unlike scrawny me. My father was a guy who could clear an acre of Canadian bush before breakfast, have it tilled and planted before lunchtime, with the plants sprouting before dinnertime.

Jesus H. Christ!-- a guy like my father ought to have lived forever!