Obsolete tools

With the recent gift of a wood grainer, pictured here, I realized I have a little collection of industrial tools forming - all of which were given to me as gifts, come to think of it.

Mark Taaffe of World Headquarters at 2885 Dundas St. West in the Junction gave this wood grainer to me. I love it. It looks like there's a patent number and a 1911 date stamped on the handle on the back.

If you're like me and need some help figuring out how this would have been used, I'll tell you what Mark told me: this would have been run down the length of say, a cupboard that had been painted, to create a grainy effect.

Doug Killaly of Post & Beam Reclamation, another Junction gem at 2869 Dundas St. West specializing in architectural salvage, gave this to me a couple years ago.

Can you guess what it is?



It's a wood block floral pattern stamper, from Hungary if memory serves, and was used to stamp patterns on clothing.

I love that it's stained blue. Doug mounted it on a little stand, so now it's a decor object just like my wood grainer.

A man gave this to me many years ago as a Christmas gift - he found it in a Paris flea market and the tool generated much conversation around the holiday tree in the south of France that year ....

We never figured out what it was used for.

I think I'll be haunting the salvage and junk shops for other old artisan-type tools and implements such as these. Is there such a thing as feeling nostalgia for items you've never experienced before? Let's just say I appreciate their artisan handy bent and their history, known or not. And the tools make for neat decor groupings.