A miscellany of vintage woodworking hand tools of the period
Introduction and Overview
My
apprenticeship in the truck cab and body building trade
in N. England circa 1947 to 1950 at the firm of Oswald
Tillotson. The effect of WWII on hand tool availability
and the difficulty of obtaining new tools in the
immediate post-war years. Go to
the Introduction an Overview page
Building wooden flat bed truck bodies
An
overview of how wooden flat bed bodies were built at
Oswald Tillotson's (and in the trade in general) in the
late 1940s - the materials provided, the methodology
employed and the tools used. Go to the building wooden flat bed
truck bodies page
Stanley Tools
Stanley
tools were renowned for their reliability and durability.
Stanley planes, nail hammers, paring (butt & pocket)
chisels, rules, marking gauges and try squares in
particular were favored by several craftsmen and
apprentices. Go to the
Stanley Tools page
Wm. Marples & Sons Tools
Tools
produced by this venerable British firm had a great
reputation for quality, excellence & durability and
were often the tools of choice for many apprentices and
craftsmen. Go to the Wm.
Marples & Sons Tools page
North Bros. "Yankee" ratchet mechanism Tools
"YANKEE"
ratchet mechanism tools - screw drivers, hand drills and
bit braces - produced by North Bros. of Philadelphia were
long renowned for their innovation, reliabilty &
quality and were much favored by craftsmen and
apprentices. Go to the North
Bros. "Yankee" ratchet mechanism Tools page
Disston Hand Saws
The saws
against which all others were measured. The Disston
reputation for quality and reliability made them the saw
of choice for the majority of craftsmen and apprentices.
Cross-cut and Tenon saws were the most used types.
Go to the Disston Hand Saws
page
British Chisels
Tillotson
workers in general used a varied mix of chisel makes and
types with British made chisels being the most used. I
used Marples and Sorby sash mortise and firmer chisels,
almost exclusively. Go to
my British chisels page
Recent updates & additions
Date format: Year-Month-Day ( ISO 8601)
All pages on this
site.
Installed Marples Tools
page.
Tool Kit page.
Marples Tools page.
Site Objective
The objective of this web site is to provide information relating to my experiences as an apprentice in the truck cab and body building trade in N. England during the late 1940s and to provide reference & research information relating to some of the woodworking hand tools used in the trade at that time.
Site Search
Search all pages on this site by entering key words or phrases. Also can be used to search the web.
Hand Tool Kit
My tool kits evolved during my
apprenticeship from a few used old tools (mostly
pre-WWII 1930s vintage) when I started, to a mix of
used and newly bought tools by 1950. The kit depicted
here is representative of one toward the end of my
apprenticeship. Go
to the Hand Tool Kit page
Tool Photography
All
photographs of tools used in the body of these web
pages were taken by me using a Pentax Optio
W10 digital camera (in Macro non-flash mode)
usually attached to a tripod. Mostly, tools were placed
on neutral gray concrete and were illuminated by
natural day light.
Portal to all of my Web Sites & Pages
-
Practical Italic Handwriting -
Practical Bookhand writing - Roman Imperial Coinage -
The Britannic Coinage of Constantius - Roman Coins of
the London Mint - Roman Imperial Coin Lettering - Web
Authoring, etc. Go to
the Portal
Informal Tool Studies
Online Resources
Web Pages & Blogs
Reference Books
Catalog PDF Downloads
W3C Validated Markup & Style
Sheets on all pages - Non-commercial and Accessible to
People with Disabilities
WOODWORKING WITH HAND TOOLS c. 1947-1950 - Authored by
James Pickering - email: jp29@cox.net