Old Tools
~ by Paul Sackmann
The many old pieces of machinery and vintage trucks and cars, along with everything else old, needs a tune-up now and again. There are occasions when only an original tool from the same time period as the antique you are working on will do. Sometimes the tools will come with the vehicle or implement you acquire.
On Model T’ s, only a Model T hubcap wrench will take the hubcap off properly. The same wrench loosens the spark plug, adjusts the fan belt, and serves other functions for the T. All this from one tool that is easy to use. Horse-drawn wagons and farm implements from the 1880s vintage came with the original factory made tools and still work properly on restored equipment or what’ s left of the rusty old relics today. The original tools grip around the hardware as well as the day they were made.
Old cast-iron tools for the vintage cars, tractors, and farm implements are not only nice to display, but work as they should, when repairing the older equipment.
There were many vendors selling old wrenches at the last tractor show I attended. I bought one tool— it was not only a lug wrench for the wheels, it also was a crank handle to hand-crank an engine if the battery was low. I tried it and hand-cranked one of our old trucks. It worked great. It is now part of the tool kit for that truck.
Most of the vintage wrenches have a nice toned color to them. The cast-iron and forged tools can be over 100 years old, but still only need to be wiped down and dusted off to be serviceable.
I have bought whole tool boxes with straw, junk, and everything else thrown in, at auctions for a few dollars. When they are dumped out and gone through, there is always an old pair of pliers that are frozen and
26 Our Brown County Jan./ Feb. 2017